List of religious populations

This is a list of religious populations by number of adherents and countries.

Current world estimates

Pew Research Center made its "Population Growth Projections, 2010–2050" based on 2010 baseline estimates. New estimates for 2020 are still work in progress. Their methodology is published as an appendix.

By proportion

Christians

Countries and territories with the greatest proportion of Christians from Christianity by country, in 2010:

100%
100%
99.6%
~99.0%
98.5%
98.3%
98.1%
98.0%
98.0%
97.2%
97.2%
97.0%
96.9%
96.4%
96.0%
~96.0%
95.1%
94.8%
94.6%
94.5%
93.0%
92.9%
91.1%
90.0%

Muslims

Countries and territories with a considerable proportion of Muslims from Islam by country in 2010, excluding foreign workers in brackets:

100%
99.9%
Gaza Strip 99.9%
99.9%
99.8%
99.7%
99.7%
99.6%
99.5%
99.2%
99.0%
99.0%
98.6%
98.3%
98.0%
97.9%
97.2%
97.0%
96.9%
96.6%
96.4%
96.3%
94.6%
92.2%

Irreligious and atheists

Countries with the greatest proportion of people without religion, including agnostics and atheists, from Irreligion by country in 2020:

78.4%
71.3%
60.2%
60.0%
54.7%
51.8%
46.6%
45.3%
44.3%
41.5%
39.6%
36.5%
31.9%
31.2%
31.0%
29.9%
29.0%
28.6%
28.6%
28.0%
26.7%
26.3%
24.5%
23.2%
22.8%
21.0%
20.8%
20.3%
19.4%
18.8%

Data is ranked by mean estimate in parentheses. Irreligious includes agnostic, atheist, secular people, and those having no formal religious adherence. It does not necessarily mean that those of this group don't belong to any religion. Some religions have harmonized with local cultures and can be seen as a cultural background rather than a formal religion. The practice of officially associating a family or household with a religion, while not formally practicing the affiliated religion, is common in many countries. Thus, over half of this group is theistic and/or influenced by religious principles, but nonreligious/non-practicing and not true atheists or agnostics. See Spiritual but not religious.

Hindus

Countries with the greatest proportion of Hindus from Hinduism by country in 2010:

81.3%
79.8%
48.54%
27.9%
25.0%
24.8%
22.3%
18.2%
15.0%
12.6%
12.0%
9.6%
8.1%
6.7%
6.3%
5.1%
3.0%
2.6%
2.2%
2.1%
1.7%
1.7%
1.5%
1.1%
0.7%

Buddhists

Countries with the greatest proportion of Buddhists from Buddhism by country in 2010:

96.9%
93.2%
80.1%
74.7%
69.3%
66.0%
55.1%
36.2% - 66.7%
35.1%
33.2%
22.9%
19.8%
18.2%
17.3%
16.4%
13.2%
10.3%

Chinese traditional religionists

As a spiritual practice, Taoism has made fewer inroads in the West than Buddhism and Hinduism. Despite the popularity of its great classics the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching, the practice of Taoism has not been promulgated in America with much success. These religions are not ubiquitous worldwide in the way that adherents of bigger world religions are, and they remain primarily an ethnic religion. Nonetheless, Taoist ideas and symbols such as taijitu have become popular throughout the world through tai chi, qigong, and various martial arts.

33.0–80.0%
30.0%
28.0%
13.9%
8.5%
2.6%
0.2–1.0%
0.01–0.05%
0.05%

In 1999, the Chinese traditional religion had 184,000 believers in Latin America, 250,000 believers in Europe, and 839,000 believers in North America.

Ethnic and indigenous religionists

Indigenous statistics come from the 2009 U.S. Department of State's International Religious Freedom Act, based on the highest estimate of people identified as indigenous or followers of indigenous religions that have been well-defined. Due to the syncretic nature of these religions, the numbers may not reflect the actual number of practitioners.

35.6%
32.9%
30.9%
29.5%
25.0%
25.0%
20.0%
17.9%
15.0%
15.0%
12.0%
10.0%
10.0%
10.0%
10.0%
10.0%
9.0%
9.0%
8.5%
5.0%

Sikhs

Countries with the greatest proportion of Sikhs:

2.12%
1.72%
1.10%
0.88%
0.88%
0.83%
0.75%
0.56%
0.37%
0.35%

The Sikh homeland is the Punjab state, in India, where Sikhs make up approximately 58% of the population. This is the only place where Sikhs are in the majority. Sikhs have emigrated to countries all over the world – especially to English-speaking and East Asian nations. In doing so they have retained, to an unusually high degree, their distinctive cultural and religious identity.
Sikhs are not ubiquitous worldwide in the way that adherents of larger world religions are, and they remain primarily an ethnic religion. They can be found in many international cities and have become an especially strong religious presence in the United Kingdom and Canada. Sikhism is the fastest growing religion in New Zealand and Australia.

Spiritists

10.3%
10.2%
4.8%
3.6%
2.7%
2.2%
1.9%
1.5%
1.4%
1.3%
1.1%
1.0%
1.0%
0.9%
0.7%
0.5%
0.5%
0.4%
0.2%
0.2%

Spiritist estimates come from a single source, which gives a relative indication of the size of the Spiritist communities within each country.

Jews

Countries with the greatest proportion of Jews in 2017:

73.60%
2.00%
1.76%
1.07%
0.70%
0.485%
0.483%
0.47%
0.44%
0.41%
0.36%
0.259%
0.25%
0.24%
0.22%
0.17%
0.154%
0.154%
0.152%
0.14%
0.124%
0.124%
0.122%
0.112%
0.11%

By population

Christians

Largest Christian populations in 2011:

229,157,250
169,213,130
114,198,444
106,204,560
80,510,000
78,790,000
67,070,000
63,150,000
55,832,000
51,477,950
50,752,580
44,502,000
41,973,000
40,243,000
39,560,000
38,568,000
36,526,000
33,625,790
33,497,100
33,200,417
29,943,000
29,579,316
28,436,000
28,340,790
27,365,100

Muslims

Largest Muslim populations in 2017:

229,000,000
215,000,000
209,000,000
153,000,000
117,000,000
87,500,000
82,000,000
79,850,000
48,000,000
44,000,000
41,000,000
39,000,000
38,000,000
37,000,000
33,000,000
33,648,090
30,000,000
28,000,000
25,000,000
22,000,000
22,000,000

Hindus

Largest Hindu populations in 2020:

1,120,000,000
28,600,000
14,274,430
4,640,000
4,400,000
3,090,000
2,510,000
1,940,000
1,239,610
1,030,000
890,000
682,302
665,820
610,000
440,000
410,000
403,570
380,000
360,000
330,000
310,000
270,000
200,000
200,000
190,000
120,785
120,000

Buddhists

Largest Buddhist populations in 2020.

67,620,000
53,380,000
47,210,000
46,990,000
22,580,000
16,240,000
15,700,000
9,850,000
9,550,000
6,400,000
3,800,023
2,062,000
1,001,974

Sikhs

Largest Sikh population in 2023

23,786,000
771,790
524,000
~280,000
210,400
210,000
100,000
70,000
52,000
50,000
40,908
35,540
35,000
30,000
26,000
25,000
23,000
20,000
15,000
15,000
15,000

Jews

Largest Jewish populations in 2017:

6,451,000
5,700,000
456,000
390,000
289,500
180,500
176,000
116,500
113,200
93,800
69,300
53,000
47,500
40,000
29,800
29,300
27,300
18,700
18,300
16,900
15,300
15,000
11,800
10,000
10,000

Baháʼís

Largest Baháʼí populations in 2010 in countries with a national population ≥200,000:

1,897,651
512,864
422,782
388,802
300,000
282,916
275,069
251,127
241,112
238,532
215,359
190,419
169,811
95,098
94,499
87,259
78,915
70,504
67,549
65,096
59,898

Jains

In 2005, per ARDA:

5,146,697
79,459
68,848
35,000
12,101
9,002
6,800
2,663
2,398
2,052
1,918
1,573
1,535
1,500
1,449
1,217
1,000
1,000
981
500 families
229