In 2022, around 31.6 percent of the global population were identify as Christian. Around 25.8 percent of the global population identify as Muslims, followed by 15.1 percent of global populations as Hindu.

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 45.7 percent. For the same period, the global population of Buddhists is expected to decrease by 12.2 percent.

Global Religious Organizations market size is expected to reach $468.32 billion by 2029 at 4.4%, segmented as by type, public organization, private organization, individuals

More than 120 million people of the Hindu faith gather every 12 years in India for the Maha Kumbh Mela festival. In contrast, the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia gathered about three million Muslims in 2018.

In 2022, Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims worldwide with around 241.5 million. This was followed with around 225.6 million Muslims in Pakistan and 211.16 million Muslims in India.

The General Social Surveys (GSS) have been conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) annually since 1972, except for the years 1979, 1981, and 1992 (a supplement was added in 1992), and biennially beginning in 1994. The GSS are designed to be part of a program of social indicator research, replicating questionnaire items and wording in order to facilitate time-trend studies. This data file has all cases and variables asked on the 2022 GSS.

The 2022 cross-sectional General Social Survey has been updated to Release Version 3a as of May 2024. This Release includes the addition of an oversample of minorities (based on the AmeriSpeak® Panel), household composition and respondent selection data, and post-stratified weights for all years of the GSS.

To download syntax files for the GSS that reproduce well-known religious group recodes, including RELTRAD, please visit the "/research/syntax-repository-list" Target="_blank">ARDA's Syntax Repository.

According to a survey conducted in South Korea in 2023, over ** percent of respondents reported no religious affiliation, while approximately ** percent identified as Christians and ** percent as Buddhists. Religious population South Korea is a multi-religious society where Christianity, Buddhism, and various other religions coexist with shamanism. According to a previous study, the domestic religious population appeared to decline over time after reaching its peak in 2005, at nearly ** million people. In contrast, the share of people who are religiously unaffiliated has increased in recent years. Within the last two decades, the religiously unaffiliated population has increased from about ** percent to more than ** percent. Shamanism Shamanism has continued to significantly influence the daily lives of many South Koreans. According to a survey conducted in 2023, about ** percent of respondents reported having consulted a fortune-teller within the past year. Roughly ** percent of those respondents were already affiliated with a religion.

In 2024, Nigeria had the largest Muslim population in Africa, with around 105 million people who belonged to an Islamic denomination. Egypt and Algeria followed with 90.4 million and 39.4 million Muslims, respectively. Muslims have a significant presence in Africa, with an estimated 50 percent of the continent's population identifying as Muslim. The spread of Islam in Africa began in the 7th century with the arrival of Arab traders, and it continued through Islamic scholars and missionaries.

Abstract

Census of Population and Housing (CPH) refers to the entire process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analyzing, publishing, and disseminating data about the population and the living quarters in a country. It entails the listing and recording of the characteristics of each individual and each living quarter as of a specified time and within a specified territory. In other words, the CPH offers a “snapshot” of the entire population on a specific date, that is, how many people reside within the national borders, who they are, and where they live during such specified date. Also, included are the characteristics of the housing units where they reside.

The 2010 CPH is designed to take an inventory of the total population and housing units in the Philippines and collect information about their characteristics. The census of population is the source of information on the size and distribution of the population, as well as their demographic, social, economic, and cultural characteristics. The census of housing, on the other hand, provides information on the stock of housing units and their structural characteristics and facilities which have bearing on the maintenance of privacy and health, and the development of normal family living conditions. These information are vital for making rational plans and programs for local and national development.

Specifically, the 2010 CPH aims to: - obtain comprehensive data on the size, composition, and distribution of the population of the Philippines; - gather data on birth registration, literacy, school attendance, place of school, highest grade/year completed, residence 5 years ago, overseas worker, usual occupation, kind of business or industry, class of worker, place of work, fertility, religion, citizenship, ethnic group, disability, and functional difficulty, and determine their geographic distribution; - take stock of the housing units existing in the country and to get information about their geographic location, structural characteristics, and facilities, among others; - obtain information on the characteristics of the barangay, which will be used as basis for urban-rural classification; and - serve as sampling frame for use in household-based surveys.

Data collected in this census were compiled, evaluated, analyzed, published, and disseminated for the use of government, business, industry, social scientists, other research and academic institutions, and the general public. Among the important uses of census data are the following:

In government: - redistricting and apportionment of congressional seats; - allocation of resources and revenues; - creation of political and administrative units; - formulation of policies concerning population and housing; and - formulation of programs relative to the delivery of basic services for health, education, housing, and others

In business and industry: - determination of sites for establishing businesses; - determination of consumer demands for various goods and services; and - determination of supply of labor for the production of goods and services

In research and academic institutions: - conduct of researches on population and other disciplines; and - study of population growth and distribution as basis in preparing projections

Geographic coverage

National coverage Regions Provinces Cities and Municipalities Barangays

Analysis unit

household questionnaire: individuals (household members), households, housing units institutional questionnaire: individuals (institutional population), institutional living quarters barangay questionnaire: barangay

Universe

Census-taking in the Philippines follows a de-jure concept wherein a person is counted in the usual place of residence or the place where the person usually resides. Information on the count of the population and living quarters were collected with 12:01 a.m. of May 1, 2010 as the census reference time and date.

The following individuals were enumerated:

• Those who were present at the time of visit and whose usual place of residence is the housing unit where the household lives.

• Those whose usual place of residence is the place where the household lives but are temporarily away at the time of the census.

• Boarders/lodgers of the household or employees of household-operated businesses who do not usually return/go to their respective homes weekly.

• Overseas workers and who have been away at the time of the census for not more than five years from the date of departure and are expected to be back within five years from the date of last departure.

• Filipino "balikbayans" with usual place of residence in a foreign country but have resided or are expected to reside in the Philippines for at least a year from their arrival.

• Citizens of foreign countries who have resided or are expected to reside in the Philippines for at least a year from their arrival, except members of diplomatic missions and non-Filipino members of international organizations.

• Persons temporarily staying with the household who have no usual place of residence or who are not certain to be enumerated elsewhere.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

In the 2010 CPH, there are basically two types of questionnaires used for the enumeration of household members. These are CPH Form 2 or the Common Household Questionnaire and CPH Form 3 or the Sample Household Questionnaire. CPH Form 3 contains more questions than CPH Form 2.

The 2010 CPH was carried out through a combination of complete enumeration and sampling. For this census, systematic cluster sampling was adopted. This sampling method is designed in such a way that efficient and accurate estimates will be obtained at the city/municipality level.

The sampling rate or the proportion of households to be selected as samples depends on the size of the city/municipality where the Enumeration Area (EA) is located. For the cities/municipalities with estimated number of households of 500 and below, 100 percent sampling rate was used. While for those cities/municipalities with estimated number of households of 501 and above, a sampling rate of 20 percent was implemented.

In this sampling scheme, each city/municipality was treated as a domain. For city/municipality with 100 percent sampling rate, all households in all the EAs within this city/municipality were selected as samples. For those with a 20 percent sampling rate, systematic cluster sampling was adopted. That is, sample selection of one in five clusters with the first cluster selected at random. Thus in effect, the EAs belonging to the city/municipality with 20 percent sampling rate are divided into clusters of size 5. Random start is pre-determined for each EA.

If the sampling rate applied to a city/municipality is 100 percent, it means that all households in that municipality were administered with CPH Form 3. If it is 20 percent, it means that 20 percent of all households used CPH Form 3 while 80 percent used CPH Form 2.

The random start used by EA is a number from 1 to 5 which was used to select the cluster where the first sample households in an EA, and subsequently the other sample households, were included.

Clusters are formed by grouping together households that have been assigned consecutive serial numbers as they were listed in the Listing Booklet. For a 20 percent sampling rate, clusters were formed by grouping together five households.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

CPH Form 1 - Listing Booklet This form is a booklet used to list the buildings, housing units, households, and the Institutional Living Quarters (ILQs) within an EA. This form also records other important information such as the name of household heads and name and type of institutions and their addresses, population totals, and counts of males and females.

CPH Form 2 - Common Household Questionnaire This is the basic census questionnaire, which was used to interview and record information about the common or nonsample households. This questionnaire gathered information on the following demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population: relationship to household head, sex, date of birth, age, birth registration, marital status, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, disability, functional difficulty, highest grade/year completed, residence 5 years ago, and overseas worker. It also contains questions on the type of building/house, construction materials of the roof and outer walls, state of repair of the building/house, year the building/house was built, floor area of the housing unit, and tenure status of the lot.

CPH Form 3 - Sample Household Questionnaire This is the basic census questionnaire, which was used to interview and record information about the sample households. This questionnaire contains ALL questions asked in CPH Form 2 PLUS additional population questions: literacy, school attendance, place of school, usual occupation, kind of business or industry, class of worker, place of work, and some items on fertility. Moreover, there are additional questions on household characteristics: fuel for lighting and cooking, source of water supply for drinking and/or cooking and for laundry, and bathing, tenure status of the housing unit, acquisition of the housing unit, source of financing of the housing unit, monthly rental of the housing unit, tenure status of the lot, usual manner of garbage disposal, kind of toilet facility, and land ownership. It also asked questions on the language/dialect generally spoken at home, residence five years from now, and presence of household conveniences/devices, and access to internet.

CPH Form 4 -

The Hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia is considered among the world’s largest human gatherings, with over **** million pilgrims in 2025. The Saudi government restricted Hajj to residents in Saudi Arabia only during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The number of Hajj pilgrims dropped to about **** thousand in 2021. Like other religious pilgrimages, Hajj is considered an annual rite of passage to renew one's moral and spiritual connection. Approximately a quarter of the human population identify themselves as Muslims. According to their faith of Islam, it is one of their five religious duties to perform the Hajj at least once in their lifetime. Who are the pilgrims? According to Islamic tradition, any Muslim who has reached maturity is due to perform the Hajj. During the last Hajj season before the COVID-19 pandemic, about two thirds of the pilgrims to Mecca came from outside of the Saudi Arabian Kingdom. The government of Saudi Arabia issues each years’ Hajj visas on a country quota system, based on the size of the Muslim population .     Financial aspects   One main condition for a mature Muslim to qualify to perform the Hajj is to be free of debt and other financial and social obligations. Many Muslims around the world spend a significant amount of their life-savings to be able to make this spiritual journey. As an example, the cost of performing Hajj for a Malaysian Muslim was calculated at about ***** thousand Malaysian ringgits. For first time Hajj pilgrims, the Malaysian government subsidizes more than half of that amount. Some Muslims who can’t afford the financial or physical challenges of the Hajj sometimes perform the smaller Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca called Umrah, which can be attempted all year round.

Islam is the major religion in many African countries, especially in the north of the continent. In Comoros, Libya, Western Sahara, at least 99 percent of the population was Muslim as of 202. These were the highest percentages on the continent. However, also in many other African nations, the majority of the population was Muslim. In Egypt, for instance, Islam was the religion of 79 percent of the people. Islam and other religions in Africa Africa accounts for an important share of the world’s Muslim population. As of 2019, 16 percent of the Muslims worldwide lived in Sub-Saharan Africa, while 20 percent of them lived in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Together with Christianity, Islam is the most common religious affiliation in Africa, followed by several traditional African religions. Although to a smaller extent, numerous other religions are practiced on the continent: these include Judaism, the Baha’i Faith, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Number of Muslims worldwide Islam is one of the most widespread religions in the world. There are approximately 1.9 billion Muslims globally, with the largest Muslim communities living in the Asia-Pacific region. Specifically, Indonesia hosts the highest number of Muslims worldwide, amounting to over 200 million, followed by India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Islam is also present in Europe and America. The largest Islamic communities in Europe are in France (5.72 million), Germany (4.95 million), and the United Kingdom (4.13 million). In the United States, there is an estimated number of around 3.45 million Muslims.

Christianity is the major religion in numerous African countries. As of 2024, around 96 percent of the population of Zambia was Christian, representing the highest percentage on the continent. Seychelles and Rwanda followed with roughly 95 percent and 94 percent of the population being Christian, respectively. While these countries present the highest percentages, Christianity was also prevalent in many other African nations. For instance, in South Africa, Christianity was the religion of nearly 85 percent of the people, while the share corresponded to 71 percent in Ghana. Religious variations across Africa Christianity and Islam are the most practiced religions in Africa. Christian adherents are prevalent below the Sahara, while North Africa is predominantly Muslim. In 2020, Christians accounted for around 60 percent of the Sub-Saharan African population, followed by Muslims with a share of roughly 30 percent. In absolute terms, there were approximately 650 million Christians in the region, a number forecast to increase to over one billion by 2050. In contrast, Islam is most prevalent in North Africa, being the religion of over 90 percent of the population in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya. Christianity in the world As opposed to other religions, Christianity is widely spread across continents worldwide. In fact, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe each account for around 25 percent of the global Christian population. By comparison, Asia-Pacific and North America make up 13 percent and 12 percent of Christians worldwide, respectively. In several regions, Christians also suffer persecution on religious grounds. Somalia and Libya presented the most critical situation in Africa in 2021, reporting the strongest suppression of Christians worldwide just after North Korea and Afghanistan.

The two countries with the greatest shares of the world's Jewish population are the United States and Israel. The United States had been a hub of Jewish immigration since the nineteenth century, as Jewish people sought to escape persecution in Europe by emigrating across the Atlantic. The Jewish population in the U.S. is largely congregated in major urban areas, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, with the New York metropolitan area being the city with the second largest Jewish population worldwide, after Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel is the world's only officially Jewish state, having been founded in 1948 following the first Arab-Israeli War. While Jews had been emigrating to the holy lands since the nineteenth century, when they were controlled by the Ottoman Empire, immigration increased rapidly following the establishment of the state of Israel. Jewish communities in Eastern Europe who had survived the Holocaust saw Israel as a haven from persecution, while the state encouraged immigration from Jewish communities in other regions, notably the Middle East & North Africa. Smaller Jewish communities remain in Europe in countries such as France, the UK, and Germany, and in other countries which were hotspots for Jewish migration in the twentieth century, such as Canada and Argentina.

According to estimations from 2018, Nigeria's major religion is Islam. Over half of the population is estimated to be Muslim. Christian religions make up around 45 percent of the total, with Roman Catholicism being the main branch.

Sikhism is a religion that originated on the Indian subcontinent during the fifteenth century. Sikhs follow the teachings of 'gurus', who descend from the first guru Guru Naruk who established the faith. Followers of Sikhism are monotheists, believing in only one god, and other core beliefs include the need to meditate, the importance of community and communal living, and the need to serve humanity selflessly (or 'seva'). Sikhism and the British Empire In total, there are around 26 million Sikhs worldwide, and over 24 million of these live in India. Outside of India, the largest Sikh populations are mostly found in former territories of the British Empire - the UK and Canada both have Sikh populations of over half a million people. Migration from India to other parts of the British Empire was high in the 19th century, due to the labor demands of relatively newer colonies, as well as those where slavery had been abolished. These countries also remain popular destinations for Sikh migrants today, as many are highly trained and English-speaking. Other regions with significant Sikh populations Italy also has a sizeable Sikh population, as many migrated there after serving there in the British Army during WWI, and they are now heavily represented in Italy's dairy industry. The Sikh population of Saudi Arabia is also reflective of the fact that the largest Indian diaspora in the world can now be found in the Middle East - this is due to the labor demands of the fossil fuel industries and their associated secondary industries, although a large share of Indians in this part of the world are there on a temporary basis.

In 2024, Ethiopia had the largest Christian population in Africa, with around 77.5 million people who identified as Christian. The second highest Christian population was in Nigeria, with 74.4 million people. Christianity has a significant presence in Africa, with its history on the continent dating back to the fourth century in Ethiopia. Furthermore, Christianity has spread throughout Africa with different denominations and traditions, taking root in various regions. Some of the largest Christian denominations in Africa include the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.

This statistic shows the estimated number of Muslims living in different European countries as of 2016. Approximately **** million Muslims were estimated to live in France, the most of any country listed. Germany and the United Kingdom also have large muslim populations with **** million and **** million respectively.

In 2016, it was estimated that Birmingham had the largest Muslim population of any local authority in England and Wales at approximately 280 thousand people. Newham and Tower Hamlets, both boroughs of London, had the second and third-largest Muslim populations at 135 and 128 thousand respectively.