In 2020, around 28.8 percent of the global population were identified as Christian. Around 25.6 percent of the global population identify as Muslims, followed by 14.9 percent of global populations as Hindu. The number of Muslims increased by 347 million, when compared to 2010 data, more than all other religions combined.

As of 2010, Christianity was the religion with the most followers worldwide, followed by Islam (Muslims) and Hinduism. In the forty years between 2010 and 2050, it is projected that the landscape of world religions will undergo some noticeable changes, with the number of Muslims almost catching up to Christians. The changes in population sizes of each religious group is largely dependent on demographic development, for example, the rise in the world's Christian population will largely be driven by population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, while Muslim populations will rise across various regions of Africa and South Asia. As India's population is set to grow while China's goes into decline, this will be reflected in the fact that Hindus will outnumber the unaffiliated by 2050. In fact, India may be home to both the largest Hindu and Muslim populations in the world by the middle of this century.

From 2022 to 2060, the worldwide population of Muslims is expected to increase by **** percent. For the same period, the global population of Buddhists is expected to decrease by **** percent.

At the end of 2023, the population of Israel reached almost 9.7 million permanent residents. Jewish residents formed the largest religious group, with just over 7.15 million people. The Muslim population in the country, formed the largest religious minority at over 1.7 million individuals. Conversely, the smallest religious group was that of the Druze with about 151,000 people.

The World Religion Project (WRP) aims to provide detailed information about religious adherence worldwide since 1945. It contains data about the number of adherents by religion in each of the states in the international system. These numbers are given for every half-decade period (1945, 1950, etc., through 2010). Percentages of the states' populations that practice a given religion are also provided. (Note: These percentages are expressed as decimals, ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates that 0 percent of the population practices a given religion and 1 indicates that 100 percent of the population practices that religion.) Some of the religions (as detailed below) are divided into religious families. To the extent data are available, the breakdown of adherents within a given religion into religious families is also provided.

The project was developed in three stages. The first stage consisted of the formation of a religion tree. A religion tree is a systematic classification of major religions and of religious families within those major religions. To develop the religion tree we prepared a comprehensive literature review, the aim of which was (i) to define a religion, (ii) to find tangible indicators of a given religion of religious families within a major religion, and (iii) to identify existing efforts at classifying world religions. (Please see the original survey instrument to view the structure of the religion tree.) The second stage consisted of the identification of major data sources of religious adherence and the collection of data from these sources according to the religion tree classification. This created a dataset that included multiple records for some states for a given point in time. It also contained multiple missing data for specific states, specific time periods and specific religions. The third stage consisted of cleaning the data, reconciling discrepancies of information from different sources and imputing data for the missing cases.

The Regional Religion Dataset: The unit of analysis is the region, measured at five-year intervals. The Correlates of War regional breakdown is used with one modification: the Oceania category is added for Correlates of War nation numbers 900 and above.

As of 2020, Christianity was the largest religion in the world, with around *** billion believers. In the second place was Islam, with around *** billion adherents.

This map displays predominant religion by country and predominant religion family by region. Religion family categories shown include Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Other. Religion categories by country shown include Roman Catholic, Protestant, Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Orthodox Christianity, Folk Religion, Christianity Other, Hindu, Shi’a Islam, Unaffiliated, Uninhabited, and Other. First- and second-largest religion and percent of the population practicing each are shown for each country.The main source of data comes from the Association of Religion Data Archives - http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Descriptions/WRDNATL.asp.

Table showing the numbers and percentage of resident population (all ages) broken down into six faiths, plus no religion and any other religion. Data is taken from the Annual Population Survey (ONS).

The data covers: Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, any other religion and no religion at all.

95% Confidence Intervals are shown.

Or alternatively, faith data from the 2011 Census is able to show numbers for each of the main religions.

This dataset shows the Worker Population Ratio (WPR), in percentage terms, for major religions, based on usual status (ps+ss). For years before 2017-18, the data was obtained in different quinquennial rounds of NSSO conducted from 2004-05 (NSS 61st) to 2011-12 (NSS 68th round). From 2017-18 the data is sourced from the annual report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The data highlights the proportion of the working population within major religious communities.

This statistic shows the top 25 countries in the world with the largest number of Christian population in 2010. In 2010, the United States was leading the ranking with about 243 million Christians living in the country.

Religion and Bangladesh

Religion in Bangladesh is a sensitive issue, mostly because Bangladesh is officially a secular state but recognizes Islam as an official, state religion. Historically and doctrinally, Islamic scholars don’t accept nations that are secular because they think that religion, society and private life are all part of the great community they like to call ‘umma’.

The main religion in Bangladesh is Islam because it is practiced by almost 90 percent of the country’s population. The rest of 10 percent adhere to Hinduism. The type of Islam that is practiced in Bangladesh is Sunni Islam with a lot of Sufi influences. Sunni is the most numerous branch of Islam in the world. Countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have Sunni majority populations. The Sufi practices that influence the Islamic religion in Bangladesh are commonly known as mysticism. Sufi followers are poor men that don’t eat, don’t drink and spend their days in deep prayer in order to achieve spiritual connection with God.

Bangladesh has the fourth largest Muslim population in the world, with over 130 million followers, right after Indonesia, Pakistan and India. In its constitution, Bangladesh is recognized as a secular state. For a short period of time, when Bangladesh was under Pakistani rule, Islam was made the state’s official religion. But the Supreme Court or High Court of Bangladesh ruled that Bangladesh must return to the principles of the 1972 constitution, meaning that it mustn’t have an official religion.

The problem with Islam gaining too much power in Bangladesh is that it unbalances the genders issues. Islamic edicts or fatwas have been issued mostly against women by religious courts as punishments for their nonreligious behavior. Global NGO’s are fighting such edicts in order to maintain a fair judgment when it comes to men and women. Bangladesh is a country where gender issues, as well as religious issues are very sensitive subjects.

In 2023, over ** percent of Indonesians declared themselves to be Muslim, followed by *** percent who were Christians. Indonesia has the largest Islamic population in the world and for this reason is often recognized as a Muslim nation. However, Indonesia is not a Muslim nation according to its constitution. The archipelago is a multifaith country and officially recognizes six religions – Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. Not all provinces in Indonesia are Muslim majority The spread of Islam in Indonesia began on the west side of the archipelago, where the main maritime trade routes were located. Until today, most of the Indonesian Muslim population are residing in Western and Central Indonesia, while the majority religion of several provinces in Eastern Indonesia, such as East Nusa Tenggara and Bali, is Christian and Hindu, respectively. Discrimination towards other beliefs in Indonesia The Indonesian constitution provides for freedom of religion. However, the Government Restrictions Index Score on religion in Indonesia is relatively high. Indonesians who practice unrecognized religions, including Indonesia’s indigenous or traditional belief systems, such as animism, dynamism, and totemism, face legal restrictions and discrimination. Indonesian law requires its citizens to put one of the recognized religions on their national identity cards, with some exceptions for indigenous religions. Although legally citizens may leave the section blank, atheism or agnosticism is considered uncommon in Indonesia.

Time-series dataset of the demographic characteristics of the UK ethnic minority populations and religious groups up to 2006, to study ethnic and religious demographic diversity and its impact upon future population size, age-structure and the ethnic and religious composition of the UK population. This dataset is compiled from various existing data sources: 2001 Census, Labour Force Survey (LFS) and International Passenger Survey (IPS) data. In the absence of vital statistics by ethnic groups, indirect methods were used to estimate vital rates, including the ‘Own Child’ method applied to LFS household data to derive fertility estimates of ethnic and religious groups. Building on previous work, fertility rates of ethnic groups were produced up to 2006, distinguishing between UK-born and foreign-born populations. Migration rates were based on ONS International Migration Statistics (using IPS data), LFS and census data and projected on various assumptions. The results served population projections to mid-century and beyond of the main ethnic minority populations, including mixed populations, and using cohort-component methods. Furthermore, estimates of fertility rates for the major religious (and non-religious) groups were produced. Datasets include: (1) Calculated fertility estimates for all women aged 15 to 49 in the UK, by 5 years age group, by ethnic group, religion and place of birth (UK/non-UK), based on LFS data; (2) Data on mixed children by ethnic group of the mother; (3) Data on country of birth by ethnic group (all populations); (4) Data on immigration flow by country of origin. This project aims to analyse ethnic and religious demographic diversity, to investigate the potential for convergence of trends over time and its impact upon future population size, age-structure and the ethnic and religious composition of the UK population. Existing statistical sources (especially the 2001 Census, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Longitudinal Survey) will be used to produce time-series of the demographic characteristics of the ethnic minority populations and religious groups up to 2006. In the absence of vital statistics by ethnic groups, the Own Child method applied to LFS and census data will be used to derive fertility estimates of ethnic and religious groups. The results will serve population projections to mid-century and beyond of the main ethnic minority populations, including mixed populations, and using cohort-component methods. Migration rates will be based on ONS International Migration Statistics, LFS and census data and projected on various assumptions. Furthermore, estimates of fertility rates and other demographic information for the major religious (and non-religious) groups will be produced with a view to making preliminary projections of their future size. The potential convergence of the demographic characteristics of ethnic and religious groups will be analysed, including mixed unions as an indicator for integration. Derivation from existing data sources: Labour Force Survey data (output from analysis); ONS commissioned tables (census and IPS data).

The Perception and Acceptance of Religious Diversity survey is one of the largest representative surveys to date on religious plurality in Europe. It captures the range of attitudes toward Islam and other religions among residents in five European countries. The survey was carried out in 2010 by the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" of the University of Münster, together with TNS Emnid. The survey was conducted in Germany (East/West), Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Portugal, with the goal to include approximately 1000 respondents from each area.

The 2000 constitution of Cote d’Ivoire provides for religious freedom for all citizens. Approximately 40 percent of the population is Christian, another 40 percent is Muslim, and an estimated 25 percent of the population practice indigenous beliefs. Traditionally, the north has been associated with Islam and the south with Christianity. Throughout rural areas and central Cote d’Ivoire you will find people practicing indigenous beliefs. Many nominal Christian and Muslim practitioners practice a hybrid of Christian and indigenous or Muslim and indigenous beliefs. Nearly all Christians and Muslims belong to ethnic groups that believe in animism, fetishism, and witchcraft. Christian groups include Roman Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Methodists, Assemblies of God, and Southern Baptists. The Evangelical Protestant Church of Cote d’Ivoire has over 1500 organized churches in its membership. The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro is a Roman Catholic basilica built in the late 1980s by then-President Felix Houphouet-Boigny. It is considered the largest church in the world. The USD 300 million price tag contributed to a significant portion to the total national debt of Cote d’Ivoire. Historically, Christian religions have been slightly favored by the government with the Catholic Church being the favorite. While Christian schools received subsidies from the Ministry of Education for decades, Muslim schools were only considered official schools and given similar subsidies beginning in 1994. Accusations of discrimination against Islamic and traditional religious communities concerned employment, national identity card renewals, and the aforementioned religious school subsidies. This resulted in government resentment from both indigenous and Muslim populations. A 1999 coup led political leaders to stir up religious divisions between the north and south. Alassane Ouattara, a Muslim northerner was banned from the 2000 election. This led to a 2002 troop mutiny and rebellion by discontent northern Muslims. Religious tensions escalated in 2010 with the presidential election results. Alassane Ouattara was elected president and incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo rejected the results and refused to step down. Ouattara is a northern Muslim, Gbagbo a southern Christian. The ensuing violence, destruction of property, and massive displacement of people divided Cote d’Ivoire into two regions, north and south. The underlying ethnic, religious, and national fragmentation of Cote d’Ivoire contributed greatly to this division. Only minor reports of discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice have occurred in 2012. ISO3 - International Organization for Standardization 3-digit country code ADM0_NAME - Administration level zero name NAME - Name of religious institution TYPE - Type of religious instituion CITY - City location of religious institution SPA_ACC - Spatial accuracy of site location 1- high, 2 – medium, 3 - low SOURCE_DT - Primary source creation date SOURCE - Primary source SOURCE2_DT - Secondary source creation date SOURCE2 - Secondary source

In 2023, **** percent of Americans were unaffiliated with any religion. A further **** percent of Americans were White evangelical Protestants, and an additional **** percent were White mainline Protestants. Religious trends in the United States Although the United States is still home to the largest number of Christians worldwide, the nation has started to reflect a more diverse religious landscape in recent years. Americans now report a wide range of religious beliefs and backgrounds, in addition to an increasing number of people who are choosing to identify with no religion at all. Studies suggest that many Americans have left their previous religion to instead identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular, with many reasoning that they stopped believing in the religion's teachings, that they didn't approve of negative teachings or treatment of LGBTQ+ people, or that their family was never that religious growing up. Christian controversies Over the last few years, controversies linked to Christian denominations have plagued the nation, including reports of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Christian churches have also been accused of supporting discriminatory actions against LGBTQ+ people and people belonging to other religious groups. In addition, there have been increasing concerns about Christian nationalism, the political ideology that asserts that America was founded to be a Christian nation. Although the majority of Americans still think that declaring the United States a Christian nation would go against the U.S. Constitution, studies found that most Republicans would be in favor of this change.

Islam and Christianity form the two dominant religions in Nigeria. The basis of traditional religions was systematically exterminated in the religio-cultural life of the Nigerian people after their contact with colonialism. Approximately 90 percent of the Nigerian people have since preferred to be identified with either Islam or Christianity.Nigeria’s contact with Islam predated that of Christianity and European colonialism; its spread was facilitated into Sub-Saharan Africa through trade and commerce. The northern part of Nigeria is symbolic to the history of Islam, as it penetrated the area through the Kanem-Borno Empire in the 11th century before spreading to the other predominately Hausa states. Islam was then introduced into the traditional societies of the Yoruba-speaking people of south-west Nigeria through their established commercial relationship with people of the North, particularly the Nupe and Fulani.Christianity reached Nigeria in the 15th century with the visitation of the Roman and Catholic missionaries to the coastal areas of the Niger-Delta region, although there were few recorded converts and churches built during this period. Christianity soon recorded a boost in the southern region given its opposition to the slave trade and its promotion of Western education. In contrast to the smooth process Christian evangelization underwent in the South, its process in the North was difficult because Islam had already become well-established.Given the philosophy of Islam as a complete way of life for a Muslim, Islam has always been closely attached to politics in Nigeria. The emergence of particular Islamic groups was significantly influenced by international events, particularly the 1979 Iranian revolution and the corresponding disenchantment from the West. These developments shaped Nigerian national politics of the period as Muslims radically redefined their political interests in line with religion and began to clamor for the incorporation of the Sharia legal system into the country’s judicial system. Nigeria then tried to harness opportunities accruable from other Muslim countries by becoming a registered member with the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1985. This inflamed Christians and nurtured the fear of domination by their Muslim counterparts and the possibility of a gradual extinction of their religio-political strength in the national political structure. The distinct religious separation has also instigated violence in present-day Nigeria, including the Sharia riot in Kaduna in 2000, ongoing ethno-religious violence in Jos since 2001, and the 2011 post-election violence that erupted in some northern states. Nigerians’ continued loyalty to religion compared to that of the country continues to sustain major political debate, conflict, and violent outbreaks between populations of the two faiths.

ISO3 - International Organization for Standardization 3-digit country code

AREA_AFF - Geographic area affected by disease

DT_START - Date health event started

DT_END - Date health event ended

TYPE - Type of disease group

DISEASE - Name of disease

NUM_DTH - Number of people reported dead from disease

NUM_AFF - Number of people affected from disease

SOURCE_DT - Source creation date

SOURCE - Primary source

Collection

This HGIS was created using information collected from several websites. EM-DAT, the World Health Organization, and news reports provided information about the outbreaks.

The data included herein have not been derived from a registered survey and should be considered approximate unless otherwise defined. While rigorous steps have been taken to ensure the quality of each dataset, DigitalGlobe Analytics is not responsible for the accuracy and completeness of data compiled from outside sources.

Sources (HGIS)

Egunganga, Vincent, Ami Sadiq, and Hir Joseph. All AfricaHIR JOSEPH, "Nigeria: Lassa Fever Returns Vicio." Last modified March 09, 2013. Accessed April 16, 2013. http://allafrica.com/.

EM DAT, "Country Database; Nigeria." Last modified March 2013. Accessed April 16, 2013. http://www.emdat.be/.

World Health Organization, "Global Health Observatory; Nigeria." Last modified 2012. Accessed April 16, 2013. http://www.who.int/en/.

Sources (Metadata)

Encyclopedia of the Nations, "Nigeria Country Specific Information." Last modified 2013. Accessed March 28, 2013. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com.

Kates, Jennifer, and Alyssa Wilson Leggoe. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, "HIV/AIDS; The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Nigeria." Last modified October 2005. Accessed April 16, 2013. http://www.kff.org/.

United States Embassy in Nigeria, "Nigeria Malaria Fact Sheet." Last modified December 2011. Accessed April 16, 2013. http://nigeria.usembassy.gov.

World Health Organization, "Global Task Force on Cholera Control." Last modified January 18, 2012. Accessed April 16, 2013. http://www.who.int/.

World Health Organization, "Meningococcal disease: situation in the African Meningitis Belt." Last modified 2012. Accessed March 14, 2013. http://www.who.int/csr/don/2012_05_24/en/index.html.

In 2021, the largest religion in England and Wales was Christianity, with approximately 27.52 million adherents. Although Christianity was the largest religion, the number of followers has declined when compared with ten years earlier, when there were almost 33.27 million Christians.

The average for 2013 based on 84 countries was 43.2 percent. The highest value was in Poland: 95.2 percent and the lowest value was in Ethiopia: 0.6 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2013. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The latest population figures produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 28 June 2018 show that an estimated 534,800 people live in Bradford District – an increase of 2,300 people (0.4%) since the previous year. Bradford District is the fifth largest metropolitan district (in terms of population) in England, after Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester although the District’s population growth is lower than other major cities. The increase in the District’s population is largely due to “natural change”- there have been around 3,300 more births than deaths, although this has been balanced by a larger number of people leaving Bradford to live in other parts of the UK than coming to live here and a lower number of international migrants. In 2016/17 the net internal migration was -2,700 and the net international migration was 1,700. A large proportion of Bradford’s population is dominated by the younger age groups. More than one-quarter (29%) of the District’s population is aged less than 20 and nearly seven in ten people are aged less than 50. Bradford has the highest percentage of the under 16 population in England after the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, Slough Borough Council and Luton Borough Council. The population of Bradford is ethnically diverse. The largest proportion of the district’s population (63.9%) identifies themselves as White British. The district has the largest proportion of people of Pakistani ethnic origin (20.3%) in England. The largest religious group in Bradford is Christian (45.9% of the population). Nearly one quarter of the population (24.7%) are Muslim. Just over one fifth of the district’s population (20.7%) stated that they had no religion. There are 216,813 households in the Bradford district. Most households own their own home (29.3% outright and 35.7% with a mortgage). The percentage of privately rented households is 18.1%. 29.6% of households were single person households. Information from the Annual Population Survey in December 2017 found that Bradford has 228,100 people aged 16-64 in employment. At 68% this is significantly lower than the national rate (74.9%). 91,100 (around 1 in 3 people) aged 16-64, are not in work. The claimant count rate is 2.9% which is higher than the regional and national averages. Skill levels are improving with 26.5% of 16 to 74 year olds educated to degree level. 18% of the district’s employed residents work in retail/wholesale. The percentage of people working in manufacturing has continued to decrease from 13.4% in 2009 to 11.9% in 2016. This is still higher than the average for Great Britain (8.1%).