Religious Affiliation Worldwide

Religious Affiliation Worldwide

The phrase "global village" has become a common way of referring to the ever smaller world which we did. But what does it mean in human terms? If our world were a village of 1000 people, what would we be? The World's Development Forum tells us that there would be 329 Christians, 174 Muslims, 131 Indians, 61 Buddhists, 52 animists, 3 Jews, 34 members of other religions, such as Sikhs, Janes, Zorastrians, Bahi's, and 216 would be without any religion. In this village, there would be 564 Asians, 210 Europeans, 86 Africans, 80 South Americans, and 60 North Americans. And in the same village, 60 persons would have the income, 500 would be hungry, 600 would live in shantytowns, and 700 would be illiterate.

- Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey From Bozeman to Banaros by Diana L. Peck, Beacon Press, Boston, Mass, 1993, page 202

Religion	Date Founded	Sacred Texts	Members	% of World
Christianity	30 CE	The Bible	2,015 million	33% (dropping) 5
Islam	622 CE	Qur'an & Hadith	1,215 million	20% (growing) 5
No religion *	No date	None	925 million	15% (dropping) 5
Hinduism	1,500 BCE	The Veda	786 million	13% (stable) 5
Buddhism	523 BCE	The Tripitaka	362 million	6% (stable) 5
Atheists	No date	None	211 million	4%
Chinese folk rel.	270 BCE	None	188 million	4%
New Asian rel.	Various	Various	106 million	2%
Tribal Religions	Prehistory	Oral tradition	91 million	2%
Other	Various	Various	19 million	<1%
Judaism	No consensus	Torah, Talmud	18 million	<1%
Sikhism	1500 CE	Guru Granth Sahib	16 million	<1%
Shamanists	Prehistory	Oral Tradition	12 million	<1%
Spiritism			7 million	<1%
Confucianism	520 BCE	Lun Yu	5 million	<1%
Baha'i Faith	1863 CE	Most Holy Book	4 million	<1%
Jainism	570 BCE	Siddhanta, Pakrit	3 million	<1%
Shinto	500 CE	Kojiki, Nohon Shoki	3 million	<1%
Zoroastrianism	No consensus	Avesta	0.2 million	<1%

* Persons with no religion, agnostics, freethinkers, humanists, secularists, etc.

Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm