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Subject: Religions of the World
Replies: 57 Views: 1490
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Please note I got this from the internet and publish it only as a matter of interest *
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Major Religions of the World
Ranked by Number of Adherents
(Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.) *
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Christianity: 2.1 billion
Islam: 1.5 billion
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
Hinduism: 900 million
Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
Buddhism: 376 million
primal-indigenous: 300 million
African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
Sikhism: 23 million
Juche: 19 million
Spiritism: 15 million
Judaism: 14 million
Baha'i: 7 million
Jainism: 4.2 million
Shinto: 4 million
Cao Dai: 4 million
Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
Tenrikyo: 2 million
Neo-Paganism: 1 million
Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
Scientology: 500 thousand
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Introduction
The adherent counts presented in the list above are current estimates of the number of people who have at least a minimal level of self-identification as adherents of the religion. Levels of parti tion vary within all groups. These numbers tend toward the high end of reasonable worldwide estimates. Valid arguments can be made for different figures, but if the same criteria are used for all groups, the relative order should be the same. Further details and sources are available below and in the Adherents.com main database. *
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A major source for these estimates is the detailed country-by-country an*lysis done by David B. Barrett's religious statistics organization, whose data are published in the Encyclopedia Britannica (including annual updates and yearbooks) and also in the World Christian Encyclopedia (the latest edition of which - published in 2001 - has been consulted). Hundreds of additional sources providing more thorough and detailed research about individual religious groups have also been consulted. *
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This listing is not a comprehensive list of all religions, only the major ones (as defined below). There are distinct religions other than the ones listed above. But this list accounts for the religions of over 98% of the world's population. Below are listed some religions which are not in this listing (Mandeans, PL Kyodan, Ch'ondogyo, Vodoun, New Age, Seicho-No-Ie, Falun Dafa/Falun Gong, Taoism, Roma), along with explanations for why they do not qualify as major world religions on this list. *
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This world religions listing is derived from the statistics data in the Adherents.com database. The list was created by the same people who collected and organized this database, in consultation with university professors of comparative religions and scholars from different religions. We invite additional input. The Adherents.com collection of religious adherent statistics now has over 43,000 adherent statistic citations, for over 4,300 different faith groups, covering all countries of the world. This is not an absolutely exhaustive compilation of all such data, but it is by far the largest compilation available on the Internet. Various academic researchers and religious representatives regularly share documented adherent statistics with Adherents.com so that their information can be available in a centralized database. *
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Statistics and geography citations for religions not on this list, as well as subgroups within these religions (such as Catholics, Protestants, Karaites, Wiccans, Shiites, etc.) can be found in the main Adherents.com database. *
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Main list of major religions of the world
Brief explanation/introduction
Links to alternative lists of world religions
The Classical World Religions List
Parameters of this list
Parameter 1: What is a religion? (for this list)
-- Classical World Religions Ranked by Internal Religious Similarity
Parameter 2: How is size determined? (for this list)
Brief discussion of how the size and boundaries of specific religions was determined
Religious groups not included on the main list *
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Alternative summary listings of major world religions and numbers of adherents:
Christian Science Monitor (1998): Top 10 Organized Religions in the World
Encyclopedia Britannica's Adherents of All Religions by Six Continents
Tigerx.com's Top 10 Religions - A casual but insightful attempt divided along the lines of functional religious cultures rather than classical categorization
Minnesota State University's Religions of the World website lists the world's six major religions as: Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Animism, Christianity and Hinduism. Read the site's introduction (from: http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/ religion/) *
oubaas 9.12.09 - 12:07pm
The Classical World Religions List
There are twelve classical world religions. This is the list of religions described most often in surveys of the subject, and studied in World Religion classes (some of them more for historical rather than contemporary reasons):
Baha'i
Buddhism
Christianity
Confucianism
Hinduism
Islam
Jainism
Judaism
Shinto
Sikhism
Taoism
Zoroastrianism *
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The World's Major Religions list published in the New York Public Library Student's Desk Reference is typical of world religion lists which are functionally-oriented, yet still strongly classical (New York: Prentice Hall, 1993; pg. 271):
Baha'i
Buddhism
Confucianism
Hinduism
Islam
Judaism
Orthodox Eastern Church
Protestantism
Catholicism
Shinto
Taoism *
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In modern Western thought, the first writers to divide the world into world religions were Christians. Originally, three religions were recognized: Christians, Jews and pagans (i.e., everybody else). *
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After many centuries, with the increased Western awareness of Eastern history and philosophy, and the development of Islam, other religions were added to the list. Many Far Eastern ways of thought, in fact, were given the status of world religion while equally advanced religious cultures in technologically less developed or pre-literate societies (such as in Australia, Africa, South America, and Polynesia) were grouped together as pagans or animists, regardless of their actual theology. It's true that by the standards applied at the time, the Far Eastern religions Westerners encountered were often in a different category altogether than the religions they classified as pagan. *
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One can not directly compare, for example, the local beliefs of the Polynesian islands of Kiribati during the 1500s to the organizational, political, literary and philosophical sophistication of Chinese Taoism during the same period. But one could certainly question whether Japanese Shintoism, as an official world religion, was theologically or spiritually more advanced than African Yoruba religion, which was classified simply as animism or paganism.
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During the 1800s comparative religion scholars increasingly recognized Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism as the most significant world religions. Even today, these are considered the Big Five and are the religions most likely to be covered in world religion books.
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Five smaller or more localized religions/philosophies brought the list of world religions to ten: Confucianism, Taoism, Jainism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism. *
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Beginning around 1900 comparative religion writers in England began to take note of the Sikhs which had begun to immigrate there from India (part of the British Empire at the time). Sikhs, if mentioned at all, had been classified as a sect of Hinduism during the first three hundred years of their history. But after the influential British writers began to classify Sikhism as a distinct, major world religion, the rest of the world soon followed their example. *
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Baha'is are the most recent entrant to the Classical list. The religion is only about 150 years old. On their official website, Baha'is claim 5 million adherents worldwide, established in 235 countries and territories throughout the world. While most comparative religion textbooks produced during this century either ignore them or group them as a Muslim sect, the most recent books give them separate status and often their own chapter. Baha'is have achieved this status partially through their worldwide geographical spread and increasing numbers, and partially by constantly insisting that they are indeed the newest world religion. *
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The classical set of twelve is not necessarily the most accurate reflection of the present, real-world religious situation. (This fact is briefly addressed below.) We agree with the prominent comparative religion scholar Irving Hexham (an Evangelical Christian, and a professor at the University of Calgary) who wrote: *
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...there is an overemphasis on certain narrowly defined academic traditions in Religious Studies to the neglect of studies dealing with religion as it actually occurs in the world. In other words academics are happy to study other academics regardless of what is actually happening in everyday life. Thus, for example... I believe that the founder of [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], Joseph Smith, is a far more influential figure and deserves as much attention as the father of modern theology, Freidrich Schleiermacher, yet current textbooks and course offerings invariably mention Schleiermacher but rarely pay any attention to Joseph Smith. By recognizing the importance of living religions, popular piety and sociological studies I hope more balance will enter Religious Studies. [Source: Irving Hexham, Concise Dictionary of Religion, 1998.] *
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The Adherents.com Major Religions list presented on this web page differs from classical lists because it draws more from an extremely large body of contemporary affiliation data, rather than relying heavily on the lists and texts of past commentators (Hudson Smith, Noss, Barrett, etc.).
There are many distinct religions or religious movements which have more adherents than some of the classical world religions, but which are not part of the classical list for various reasons. These reasons include: *
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the religions which are not included on the classical list are too new (Scientology, Neo-Paganism)
they are concentrated in only one country (Cao Dai, Ch'ondogyo, Tenrikyo)
they lack identifiable central organizations or unifying scriptural literature (Neo-Paganism, New Age, Spiritism)
their adherents primarily name a different, more established traditional religion as their religious preference (most practitioners of Vodoun are nominal Catholics, practitioners of New Age religions are often nominally Protestant, Catholic or Jewish)
their religion is still strongly associated with a major religion from which it arose, but no longer wishes to be an official part of (Tenrikyo and many other Japanese New Religious Movements, as well as many religions emerging from Indian/Hindu environments)
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Parameters of this List
In order to rank religions by size, two parameters must be defined:
What constitutes a religion?
How is size determined?
With a working definition of a religion and a method for measuring size, criteria for what constitutes a major religion must be determined, otherwise this list could be impractically inclusive and long.
Major religions, for the purposes of this list, are:
Large - at least 500,000 adherents
Widespread - appreciable numbers of members live and worship in more than just one country or limited region
Independent - the religion is clearly independent and distinct from a broader religion
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What is a religion for the purposes of this list?
There are countless definitions of religion. But only one can be used in making a ranked list.
We are using the groupings most described used in contemporary comparative religion literature (listed above). Each of these world religions is actually a classification of multiple distinct movements, sects, divisions, denominations, etc. None of these world religions is a single, unified, monolithic organization. The diversity within these groupings varies. Hinduism is often described as a collection very different traditions, bound by a geographical and national identity. So broad is this religious umbrella that it includes clearly polytheistic, tritheistic, monotheistic, pantheistic, nontheistic, and atheistic traditions.
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The Babi & Baha'i tradition, on the other hand, is probably the most unified of the classical world religions. It is almost entirely contained within one very organized, hierarchical denomination, the Bahai Faith, based in Haifa, Israel. But there are small schismatic groups, such as the Arizona-based Orthodox Baha'is, Azali Babis (probably defunct), and four or five others.
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All adherents of a single religion usually share at least some commonalities, such as a common historical heritage and some shared doctrines or practices. But these rules can't be pushed too far before being overburdened by exceptions. A listing of doctrinally and organizationally meaningful divisions or denominational branches (such as Catholic, Eastern/Orthodox Christian, Sunni Islam, Shiite Islam, Evangelical Christian, Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, etc.) would clearly be useful, but that is the subject of a different list: Major Branches of Major World Religions.
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In the following list the classical world religions are listed with the most cohesive/unified groups first, and the religions with the most internal religious diversity last. This list is based primarily on the degree of doctrinal/theological similarity among all the various sub-groups which belong to these classifications, and to a lesser extent based on diversity in practice, ritual and organization. (Obviously these classifications include both majority manifestations of these religions, as well as subgroups which larger branches sometimes label heterodox.) *
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Classical World Religions Ranked by Internal Religious Similarity:
Most Unified to Most Diverse
Baha'i
Zoroastrianism
Sikhism
Islam
Jainism
Judaism
Taoism
Shinto
Christianity
Buddhism
Hinduism *
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No value judgement is implied by this list. There are adjectives with both positive and negative connotations which describe both ends of this spectrum. From an academic, comparative religions viewpoint, there is no basis for prescribing whether it is better for a religion to be highly unified, cohesive, monolithic, and lacking in internal religious diversity, or whether it is better to be fragmented, schismatic, diverse, multifaceted and abounding in variations on the same theme. *
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In a practical sense, most people actually practice only one form of whatever religion they belong to. Buddhism, for example, if viewed as a whole, can be understood to have a large amount of internal variation, including the Theravada and Mahayana branches, all of their sub-schools, various revivalist sects, as well as Tibetan and modern Western forms. But most actual Buddhists are not actually involved in all of these; rather they practice one, internally cohesive, fairly unified form, such as the Geluk order of Tibetan Buddhism, or Japanese Amida-Buddha worship.
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How is classification done for official government figures? It is important to note that data for the size of various religions within a given country often come from government census figures or official estimates. Such governmental endeavors are interested primarily in physical population demographics, such as how many people live in a household and how many telephones there are per person. These studies are not theological treatises. They merely classify Hindus as all people who call themselves Hindu, Muslims as all people who call themselves Muslim, Christians as all people who call themselves Christian. *
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From a sociological and historical perspective, most religions have arisen from within existing religious frameworks: Christianity from Judaism, Buddhism from Hinduism, Babi & Baha'i faiths from Islam, etc. For the purposes of defining a religion we need to have some cutoff point. Should Sikhism be listed as a Hindu sect (as in many older textbooks), or a world religion in its own right?
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To manage this question we have chosen once again to use the most commonly-recognized divisions in comparative religion texts. These definitions are primarily sociological and historical, NOT doctrinal or theological in nature.
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We recognize that within many religious traditions there are deeply felt arguments for excluding certain groups from their description of their religion. For example, councils of Muslim leaders have voted to no longer accept Ahmadis as valid Muslims, although Ahmadis consider themselves orthodox Muslims. Many Evangelical Protestants churches exclude all non-Evangelical or non-Protestant groups from their definitions of Christianity. On the other hand, some Hindu writers are so inclusive that they claim as Hindus adherents of any religion that arose in a Hindu environment, including Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. These definitions are theological in nature and of little use in this statistical context.
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Groups such as Rastafarians, Mandeans, Tenrikyo, and the Church of Scientology are too small, too new or too unimportant in world history to be included in most surveys of major world religions. Thus, in including such groups in this listing it is not always possible to appeal to a consensus within comparative religion literature. Where classification is unclear, we've used two criteria: *
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1. Does the faith group consider itself to be part of (or the definitive version of) a larger religion?
2. Does the larger religion consider the faith group to be part of its tradition? *
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If the answer to both of these questions is no, then the faith group is probably a distinct religion. If the answer to both questions is yes, the faith group is a division within the larger religion (and thus not a world religion, but a division of a world religion). If the answer to only one of the questions is yes, there is a judgment call to be made, but of course we give more weight to a group's self-concept. *
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For example, Tenrikyo arose in the 1830s in Japan in a Shinto context. The founder explained that her new revelations came from various Shinto kami (gods). Thus, Tenrikyo was classified by the Japanese ministry of religion as a Shinto sect for about one hundred years. Then the leaders of Tenrikyo asked that the faith no longer be classified as a Shinto faith. Outsiders would agree that Tenrikyo has emerged as something identifiably distinct from traditional Shinto religion, although many world religion writers include Tenrikyo in chapters on Shinto or Japanese religion for simplicity's sake. (These books can only have a limited number of chapters.) Based on these facts (and because we have no limit on the number of religions we can include on this list), we include Tenrikyo as a distinct religion.
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Even fairly contemporary and progressive writers have a youth cut-off requirement for their listings of major world religions. Many writers will classify newer movements as NRMs (New Religious Movements), and reserve the label of world religion for long established religions. (Given the content of these lists, one must assume long established means at least as old as the Babi & Baha'i faiths.) This is a valid criterion, although for the most part we are not using it here. Many of the movements that seem like distinct new religions may die out within a few generations. Many of the most recent movements, such as Seicho-No-Ie, Ananaikyo, Ch'ondogyo and other Asian new religious movements are overtly syncretistic or universalist, similar in some ways to but originating many years later than the Baha'i faith. *
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Other new religious movements of this century have primarily remained within established world religions, such as new Buddhist (Western Buddhist Order), Hindu (Hare Krishna), Muslim (Nation of Islam), Jewish (Reconstructionism), and Christian (Pentecostalism, neo-Evangelicalism, Calvary Chapel) movements and denominations. Other new religious movements of the 20th century, especially recently, have been new formulations of long-dormant faiths, such as Neo-Pagan and neo-Shamanist groups. Scientology, is one of the few movements of the 20th century that has grown large enough and escaped its predecessor religious matrix thoroughly enough to be considered a distinct world religion. Even its oft-criticized differences lend credence to the notion that it is truly a unique, new religion, and not a part of Hinduism, Buddhism or some other faith. *
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But Ahmadiyya (a recent offshoot of Islam), is not included on this list as a separate religion because its adherents claim to be Muslim, view themselves as completely Muslim, and wish to be classified as part of Islam. *
oubaas 9.12.09 - 12:24pm
Also, in keeping with the sociological perspective of Adherents.com, we are applying Emil Durkheim's classical definition of religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden--beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community...
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To this definition, we add its more recent reformulation describing religion as an ultimate concern with transformational/motivational effect. With these sociological (non-theological) definitions we could include in this list schools of thought which aren't always considered religions, such as atheism, humanism, Communism/Marxism/Maoism, and Confucianism. *
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Those interested in reading further about the sociological definition of religion and its relationship to culture may read Denise Cush's article in DISKUS (vol. 5, 1999): Potential Pioneers of Pluralism: The Contribution of Religious Education to Intercultural Education in Multicultural Societies. Useful information about cultures can also be found in John B. Gatewood's Intracultural Variability and Problem-Solving, which repeats the Kluckhohn-Murray aphorism (1953): *
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Every human is in certain respects
a. like all other humans.
b. like some other humans.
c. like no other human. *
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How is the size of a religion determined for the purposes of this list?
When referring to the size of a religion, what is usually meant is its number of adherents. Other measurements, such as how many churches or meeting places a faith group owns or how many congregations/meeting groups there are, can also be instructive, but are usually not used as a measure of overall size. Measures of religiosity and the degree to which a religious tradition has a meaningful impact on its adherents may be more important than raw adherent counts, but such measures are not as readily available nor are they easily comparable between groups.
A detailed description of what an adherent is, and the different types/levels of adherents can be found on the FAQ page. *
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How are adherents counted?
There are five main methods for determining the number of adherents in a faith group: *
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1) Organizational reporting: Religious bodies (such as churches or denominations) are asked how many adherents or members they have. This is the simplest and least expensive method, but it can be highly unreliable. Different faith groups measure membership differently. Some count as members only those who are actively attending services or who have passed through a lengthy initiation process. Others groups count all who have been baptized as infants and are thus on the church records, even though some of those people may have joined other faith groups as adults. Some groups over-report membership and others under-report membership. When asked what religion they consider themselves to be a part of, many may name a religion that does not have them on their rolls. In the United States, for instance, three times as many people claim to be Unitarian Universalists than are actually on church records. *
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2) Census records: Many countries periodically conduct a comprehensive household-by-household census. Religious preference is often a question included in these census counts. This is a highly reliable method for determining the religious self-identification of a given population. But censuses are usually conducted infrequently. The latest census may be too old to indicate recent trends in religious membership. Also, many countries either have no accurate census data, or do not include questions regarding religious affiliation. It has been over fifty years since the United States included such a question in its national census, but Canada, India, New Zealand, Australia and other countries have very thorough, recent census data on the topic. *
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3) Polls and Surveys: Statistical sampling using surveys and polls are used to determine affiliation based on religious self-identification. The accuracy of these surveys depends largely on the quality of the study and especially the size of the sample population. Rarely are statistical surveys of religious affiliation done with large enough sample sizes to accurately count the adherents of small minority religious groups. *
