Major religious groups

For the TV show see World Religions (TV series).

For a break down by religion see list of religions.

The world's principal religions and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups, although this is by no means a uniform practice. This theory began in the 18th century with the goal of recognizing the relative levels of civility in non-European societies. However, it quickly transformed into a subset of the universalist belief that all religious figures teach of a single, cross-cultural truth.

For a more comprehensive list of religions and an outline of some of their basic relationships, please see the article list of religions.

History of religious categories

An 1883 map of the world divided into colors representing "Christians, Buddhists, Hindoos, Mohammedans, Fetichists".

In world cultures, there have traditionally been many different groupings of religious belief. In Indian culture, different religious philosophies were traditionally respected as academic differences in pursuit of the same truth. In Islam, the Qur'an mentions three different categories: Muslims, the People of the Book, and idol worshipers. Initially, Christians had a simple dichotomy of world beliefs: Christian civility versus foreign heresy or barbarity. In the 18th century, "heresy" was clarified to mean Judaism and Islam; along with outright paganism, this created a fourfold classification which spawned such works as John Toland's Nazarenus, or Jewish, Gentile, and Mahometan Christianity, which represented the three Abrahamic traditions as different "nations" or sects within religion itself, the true monotheism.

Daniel Defoe described the original definition as follows: "Religion is properly the Worship given to God, but 'tis also applied to the Worship of Idols and false Deities." At the turn of the 19th century, in between 1780 and 1810, the language dramatically changed: instead of "religion" being synonymous with spirituality, authors began using the plural, "religions", to refer to both Christianity and other forms of worship. Therefore, Hannah Adams's early encyclopedia, for example, had its name changed from An Alphabetical Compendium of the Various Sects... to A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations.

In 1838, the four-way division of Christianity, Judaism, "Mahommedanism" and Paganism was multiplied considerably by Josiah Conder's Analytical and Comparative View of All Religions Now Extant among Mankind. Conder's work still adheres to the four-way classification, but in his eye for detail he puts together much historical work to create something resembling our modern Western image: he includes Druze, Yezidis, Mandeans, and Elamites under a list of possibly monotheistic groups, and under the final category, of "polytheism and pantheism", he lists Zoroastrianism, "Vedas, Puranas, Tantras, Reformed sects" of India as well as "Brahminical idolatry", Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Lamaism, "religion of China and Japan", and "illiterate superstitions".

Even through the late 19th century, it was common for Christians to view these "pagan" sects as dead traditions which preceded Christianity, "the final, complete word of God". This in no way reflected the reality of religious experience: Christians supposed these traditions to have maintained themselves in an unchanging state since whenever they were "invented", but actually all traditions survived in the words and deeds of people, some of whom could make radical new inventions without needing to create a new sect. The biggest problem in this approach was the existence of Islam, a religion which had been "founded" after Christianity, and which had been experienced by Christians as intellectual and material prosperity. By the 19th century, however, it was possible to dismiss Islam as a revelation of "the letter, which killeth", given to savage desert nomads.

The modern meaning of the phrase "world religion", putting non-Christians at the same, living level as Christians, began with the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, Illinois. This event was sharply criticized by European Orientalists up until the 1960s as "unscientific", because it allowed religious leaders to speak for themselves instead of bowing to the superior knowledge of the Western academic. As a result its approach to world religions was not taken seriously in the scholarly world for some time. Nevertheless, the Parliament spurred the creation of a dozen privately funded lectures with the intent of informing people of the diversity of religious experience: these lectures funded researchers such as William James, D.T. Suzuki, and Alan Watts, who greatly influenced the public conception of world religions.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the category of "world religion" fell into serious question, especially for drawing parallels between vastly different cultures, and thereby creating an arbitrary separation between the religious and the secular. Even history professors have now taken note of these complications and advise against teaching "world religions" in schools.

Western classification

Further information: Comparative religion and Sociological classifications of religious movements

Religious traditions fall into super-groups in comparative religion, arranged by historical origin and mutual influence. Abrahamic religions originate in the Middle East, Indian religions in India and Far Eastern religions in East Asia. Another group with supra-regional influence are African diasporic religions, which have their origins in Central and West Africa.

• Abrahamic religions are the largest group, and these consist mainly of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Bahá'í Faith. They are named for the patriarch Abraham, and are unified by the practice of monotheism. Today, around 3.4 billion people are followers of Abrahamic religions and are spread widely around the world apart from the regions around Southeast Asia. Several Abrahamic organizations are vigorous proselytizers.
• Indian religions originated in Greater India and tend to share a number of key concepts, such as dharma and karma. They are of the most influence across the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, Southeast Asia, as well as isolated parts of Russia. The main Indian religions are Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
• East Asian religions consist of several East Asian religions which make use of the concept of Tao (in Chinese) or Do (in Japanese or Korean), namely Taoism and Confucianism, both of which are asserted by some scholars to be non-religious in nature.
• African diasporic religions practiced in the Americas, imported as a result of the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 18th centuries, building on traditional religions of Central and West Africa.
• Indigenous ethnic religions, formerly found on every continent, now marginalized by the major organized faiths, but persisting as undercurrents of folk religion. Includes African traditional religions, Asian Shamanism, Native American religions, Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal traditions, Chinese folk religion, and postwar Shinto. Under more traditional listings, this has been referred to as "Paganism" along with historical polytheism.
• Iranian religions (not listed below due to overlaps) originated in Iran and include Zoroastrianism, Yazdanism, Ahl-e Haqq and historical traditions of Gnosticism (Mandaeism, Manichaeism). It has significant overlaps with Abrahamic traditions, e.g. in Sufism and in recent movements such as Bábism and the Bahá'í Faith.
• New religious movement is the term applied to any religious faith which has emerged since the 19th century, often syncretizing, re-interpreting or reviving aspects of older traditions: Hindu reform movements, Eckankar, Ayyavazhi, Pentecostalism, polytheistic reconstructionism, and so forth.

Religious demographics

Further information: List of religious populations

Major denominations and religions of the world

One way to define a major religion is by the number of current adherents. The population numbers by religion are computed by a combination of census reports and population surveys (in countries where religion data is not collected in census, for example USA or France), but results can vary widely depending on the way questions are phrased, the definitions of religion used and the bias of the agencies or organizations conducting the survey. Informal or unorganized religions are especially difficult to count.

There is no consensus among researchers as to the best methodology for determining the religiosity profile of the world's population. A number of fundamental aspects are unresolved:

• Whether to count "historically predominant religious culture[s]"
• Whether to count only those who actively "practice" a particular religion
• Whether to count based on a concept of "adherence"
• Whether to count only those who expressly self-identify with a particular denomination
• Whether to count only adults, or to include children as well.
• Whether to rely only on official government-provided statistics
• Whether to use multiple sources and ranges or single "best source(s)"

Largest religions or belief systems by number of adherents

The table below lists religions classified by philosophy; however, religious philosophy is not always the determining factor in local practice. Please note that this table includes heterodox movements as adherents to their larger philosophical category, although this may be disputed by others within that category. For example, Cao Đài is listed because it claims to be a separate category from Buddhism, while Hoa Hao is not, even though they are similar new religious movements.

The population numbers below are computed by a combination of census reports, random surveys (in countries where religion data is not collected in census, for example USA or France), and self-reported attendance numbers, but results can vary widely depending on the way questions are phrased, the definitions of religion used and the bias of the agencies or organizations conducting the survey. Informal or unorganized religions are especially difficult to count. Some organizations may wildly inflate their numbers.

Religious category	Number of followers (in millions)		Cultural tradition	Main regions covered
Christianity	2,000–2,200		Abrahamic religions	Predominant in the Western world (Europe, the Americas, Oceania), Sub-Saharan Africa, the Philippines, and South Korea. Minorities worldwide, see Christianity by country.
Islam	1,570–1,650		Abrahamic religions	Middle East, Northern Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Western Africa, Malay Archipelago with large population centers existing in Eastern Africa, Balkan Peninsula, Russia and China.
Hinduism	828–1,000		Indian religions	South Asia, Bali, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and among the overseas Indian communities.
Buddhism	400–1,500		Indian religions	South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and some regions of Russia.
Folk religions	600?		Folk religions	Africa, Asia, Americas
Chinese folk religions (including Taoism and Confucianism)	400?		Chinese Religions	East Asia, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.
Shinto	27–65		Japanese Religions	Japan
Sikhism	24–28		Indian religions	Indian subcontinent, Australasia, Northern America, Southeast Asia, the United Kingdom and Western Europe.
Judaism	14–18		Abrahamic religions	Israel and the worldwide Jewish diaspora (mostly North America, South America, Europe, and Asia).
Jainism	6–12		Indian religions	India, and East Africa.
Bahá'í Faith	7.6–7.9		Abrahamic religions	Noted for being dispersed worldwide but the top ten populations (amounting to about 60% of the Bahá'í World Faith adherents) are (in order of size of community) India, United States, Vietnam, Kenya, DR of the Congo, Philippines, Zambia, South Africa, Iran, Bolivia
Cao Dai	1–8		Vietnamese Religions	Vietnam.
Cheondoism	3		Korean Religions	North Korea, South Korea.
Tenrikyo	2		Japanese Religions	Japan, Brazil.
Wicca	1		New Religious Movements	United States, Australia, Europe, Canada.
Church of World Messianity	1		Japanese Religions	Japan, Brazil
Seicho-no-Ie	0.8		Japanese Religions	Japan, Brazil.
Rastafari movement	0.7		New religious movements	Jamaica, Caribbean, Africa.
Unitarian Universalism	0.63		New religious movements	United States, Canada, Europe.

By region

File:Religion timeline graph.jpg

Timelines of major religions

Further information: Religion in present-day nations and states

• Religion in Africa
• Religion in Asia
  • Religion in India
  • Religion in China
  • Muslim world (SW Asia and N Africa)
• Religion in North America
  • Religion in Canada
  • Religion in Mexico
  • Religion in the United States
• Religion in South America
• Religion in Australia
• Religion in Europe
  • Religion in the European Union

Trends in adherence

Further information: Claims to be the fastest-growing religion

Since the late 19th century, the demographics of religion have changed a great deal. Some countries with a historically large Christian population have experienced a significant decline in the numbers of professed active Christians: see demographics of atheism. Symptoms of the decline in active participation in Christian religious life include declining recruitment for the priesthood and monastic life, as well as diminishing attendance at church. On the other hand, since the 19th century, large areas of sub-saharan Africa have been converted to Christianity, and this area of the world has the highest population growth rate. In the realm of Western civilization, there has been an increase in the number of people who identify themselves as secular humanists. In many countries, such as the People's Republic of China, communist governments have discouraged religion, making it difficult to count the actual number of believers. However, after the collapse of communism in numerous countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, religious life has been experiencing resurgence there, both in the form of traditional Eastern Christianity and particularly in the forms of Neopaganism and Far Eastern religions.

Following is some available data based on the work of the World Christian Encyclopedia:

Trends in annual growth of adherence

1970-1985	1990-2000	2000-2005
3.65% - Bahá'í Faith	2.65% - Zoroastrianism	1.84% - Islam
2.74% - Islam	2.28% - Bahá'í Faith	1.70% - Bahá'í Faith
2.34% - Hinduism	2.13% - Islam	1.62% - Sikhism
1.67% - Buddhism	1.87% - Sikhism	1.57% - Hinduism
1.64% - Christianity	1.69% - Hinduism	1.32% - Christianity
1.09% - Judaism	1.36% - Christianity
	1.09% - Buddhism
	The annual growth in the world population over the same period is 1.41%.

Studies conducted by the Pew Research Center have found that, generally, poorer nations had a larger proportion of citizens who found religion to be very important than richer nations, with the exceptions of the United States and Kuwait.

Maps of self-reported adherence

• 
  Map showing relative degree of religiosity by country. Based on a 2006-2008 worldwide survey by Gallup.
• 
  World map showing the percentages of people who regard religion as "non-important" according to a 2002 Pew survey
• 
  Religions of the world, mapped by distribution.
• 
  Predominant religions of the world, mapped by state
• 
  Map showing the prevalence of "Abrahamic religion" (purple), and "Indian religion" (yellow) religions in each country.
• 
  Map showing the relative proportion of Christianity (red) and Islam (green) in each country.

See also

• Claims to be the fastest-growing religion
• Category:Religion by country
• List of religions
• Parliament of the World's Religions
• Religious text
• Religious conversion
• List of religious populations
• dharma, sanatana dharma

External links

• Animated history of World Religions - from the "Religion & Ethics" part of the BBC website, interactive animated view of the spread of world religions (requires Flash plug-in).
• BBC A-Z of Religions and Beliefs
• Major World Religions
• International Council for Inter-Religious Cooperation
• International Imam Organization