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.

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 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 National Religion Dataset: The observation in this dataset is a state-five-year unit. This dataset provides information regarding the number of adherents by religions, as well as the percentage of the state's population practicing a given religion.

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.

Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Punjab: Female data was reported at 166,189.000 Person in 03-01-2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 138,127.000 Person for 03-01-2001. Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Punjab: Female data is updated decadal, averaging 152,158.000 Person from Mar 2001 (Median) to 03-01-2011, with 2 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 166,189.000 Person in 03-01-2011 and a record low of 138,127.000 Person in 03-01-2001. Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Punjab: Female data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Demographic – Table IN.GAE004: Census: Population: by Religion: Christian.

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.

This dataset describes the world’s religious makeup in 2020 and 2010. We focus on seven categories: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, people who belong to other religions, and those who are religiously unaffiliated. This analysis is based on more than 2,700 sources of data, including national censuses, large-scale demographic surveys, general population surveys and population registers. For more information about this data, see the associated Pew Research Center report "How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020."

Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Madhya Pradesh: Female data was reported at 107,985.000 Person in 03-01-2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 85,025.000 Person for 03-01-2001. Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Madhya Pradesh: Female data is updated decadal, averaging 96,505.000 Person from Mar 2001 (Median) to 03-01-2011, with 2 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 107,985.000 Person in 03-01-2011 and a record low of 85,025.000 Person in 03-01-2001. Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Madhya Pradesh: Female data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Demographic – Table IN.GAE004: Census: Population: by Religion: Christian.

As of 2020, Christianity was the largest religion in the world, with around 2.5 billion believers. In the second place was Islam, with around 1.9 billion adherents.

Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Lakshadweep: Male data was reported at 286.000 Person in 03-01-2011. This records a decrease from the previous number of 422.000 Person for 03-01-2001. Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Lakshadweep: Male data is updated decadal, averaging 354.000 Person from Mar 2001 (Median) to 03-01-2011, with 2 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 422.000 Person in 03-01-2001 and a record low of 286.000 Person in 03-01-2011. Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Lakshadweep: Male data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Demographic – Table IN.GAE004: Census: Population: by Religion: Christian.

The RCS-Dem dataset reports estimates of religious demographics, both country by country and region by region. RCS was created to fulfill the unmet need for a dataset on the religious dimensions of countries of the world, with the state-year as the unit of observation. It covers 220 independent states, 26 selected substate entities, and 41 geographically separated dependencies, for every year from 2015 back to 1900 and often 1800 (more than 42,000 state-years). It estimates populations and percentages of adherents of 100 religious denominations including second level subdivisions within Christianity and Islam, along with several complex categories such as "Western Christianity." RCS is designed for easy merger with datasets of the Correlates of War and Polity projects, datasets by the United Nations, the Religion And State datasets by Jonathan Fox, and the ARDA national profiles.

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.

Religious beliefs and moral attitudes.

Thopics: perceived change in violence on the streets, bribery, adultery and tax evasion during the last 10 years; justifyability of tax evasion (scale); justifyability of death penality; attitude towards: homosexual adoption, right to commit suicide, men more right for job than women; attitudes towards abortion in different circumstances (scale);
individual or public responsability for pensions; cuts in unemployment benefits; smoking ni public buildings; goals in education of children: indepdendence, obedience, creativity; attitudes towards income differeces; attitudes towards homeless people in neighbourhood; acceptance of nepotism (Kohlberg); Criteria for selecting patients for important surgery in hospitals; attitudes towards euthanasia; rules about good and bad; source of morality (scale); control over life; solving problems: individual vs. society; social orientation; volunteering: religious organizations, non-religious organizations; geographical mobility; residence of best friend; nationality of respondent; nationality of mother; nationality of father; attitudes towards migrants (ethnocentrism); political interest; party preference; least preferred party; reception of political news; concept of god; beliefs about life after death; salvation; conditions of salvation; theodizee (scale); respondent´s religiosity (self-assessment); beliefs influence daily life; beliefs influence important decisions; spiritual life; church attendance; frequency of praying; religious services: birth, marriage, death; conceptions of jesus; conceptions of the bible; dramatic change around millennium; denominational membership; closeness to church; women as priests; conversion experience; church attendance at age 12; transcendental experiences; possession of holy object; power of holy obejct; possession of talisman or lucky charm; power of talisman or lucky charm; consult horoscope; take horoscope into account in daily life; share of friends with different religion; perceived percentage of religious people in country; role of religion in world; attitudes towards: girls cover heads, take soft drugs, prevent blood transfusion, commit suicide; attitudes towards religious groups (enrichement, cause of conflict, other religious teachings, Jehovas witness, scientologist); truth in religion; religious symbols in schools; financial support: religious schools, religions; attitudes towards: oath with reference to God; consult religions in making laws, nurse may refuse legal abortion; attitutes towards science; desired influence of churches on politics; perceived influence of churches on politics;

Demographics: gender; age (year of birth); highest level of education; emloyment status; status of unpaid work; secondary job; marital status; steady life partner; partner´s highest level of education; partner´s religion; partner´s church attendance; number of children; household (number of children +18; 13-17; 5-12; less than 4); net household income; acceptance of cut in income for solidarity with poorest countries; community size; national ranking of community size; history of church membership;

Additionally coded: length of interview; year of interview.

Optional questions (not asked in all countries): importance of freedom; importance of equality; God concerned with every individual; God is valuable in humankind; life has meaning because of a God; sorrows have meaning if beliefs in a God; sorrows receive meaning from yourself; death is natural resting point; death is passage to another life; life has meaning if yourself give meaning; Virgin Mary was taken to heaven; believe in saints; father´s religion at age 12; father attend religious services at age 12; mothers´s religion at age 12; mother attend religious services at age 12; education in religious schools; profession (ISCO); partner´s profession (ISCO), community size (not grouped); pope hinders unity of Christians; religious services: sober; religious services: music and ceremonial clothes; pope should adapt his message; laity involvement; meaning of Christmas; month of interview; father´s highest level of education; mother´s level of education; number of household members

Additional questions in the BELGIAN questionnaire (only substantial questions. No country specific versions of questions from the masterquestionnaire): meaning of marriage in church; homosexuals may marry; light candle when enter church; water from Lourdes at home; pilgrimage; ...

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.

World Religions Across Regions

Analyzing Adherence Across Regions, States and the Global System

By Correlates of War Project [source]

About this dataset

The World Religion Project (WRP) is an ambitious endeavor to conduct a comprehensive analysis of religious adherence throughout the world from 1945 to 2010. This cutting-edge project offers unparalleled insight into the religious behavior of people in different countries, regions, and continents during this time period. Its datasets provide important information about the numbers and percentages of adherents across a multitude of different religions, religion families, and non-religious affiliations.

The WRP consists of three distinct datasets: the national religion dataset, regional religion dataset, and global religion dataset. Each is focused on understanding individually specific realms for varied analysis approaches - from individual states to global systems. The national dataset provides data on number of adherents by state as well as percentage population practicing a given faith group in five-year increments; focusing attention to how this number evolves from nation to nation over time. Similarly, regional data is provided at five year intervals highlighting individual region designations with one modification – Pacific Ocean states have been reclassified into their own Oceania category according to Country Code Number 900 or above). Finally at a global level – all states are aggregated in order that we may understand a snapshot view at any five-year interval between 1945‐2010 regarding relationships between religions or religio‐families within one location or transnationally.

This project was developed in three stages: firstly forming a religions tree (a systematic classification), secondly collecting data such as this provided by WRP according to that classification structure – lastly cleaning the data so discrepancies may be reconciled and imported where needed with gaps selected when unknown values were encountered during collection process . We would encourage anyone wishing details undergoing more detailed reading/analysis relating various use applications for these rich datasets - please contact Zeev Maoz (University California Davis) & Errol A Henderson _(Pennsylvania State University)

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How to use the dataset

The World Religions Project (WRP) dataset offers a comprehensive look at religious adherence around the world within a single dataset. With this dataset, you can track global religious trends over a period of 65 years and explore how they’ve changed during that time. By exploring the WRP data set, you’ll gain insight into cross-regional and cross-time patterns in religious affiliation around the world.

Research Ideas

• Analyzing historical patterns of religious growth and decline across different regions
• Creating visualizations to compare religious adherence in various states, countries, or globally
• Studying the impact of governmental policies on religious participation over time

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. Data Source

License

License: Dataset copyright by authors - You are free to: - Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. - Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. - You must: - Give appropriate credit - Provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. - ShareAlike - You must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. - Keep intact - all notices that refer to this license, including copyright notices.

Columns

File: WRP regional data.csv | Column name | Description | |:-----------------|:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Year | Reference year for data collection. (Integer) | | Region | World region according to Correlates Of War (COW) Regional Systemizations with one modification (Oceania category for COW country code ...

A computerized data set of demographic, economic and social data for 227 countries of the world. Information presented includes population, health, nutrition, mortality, fertility, family planning and contraceptive use, literacy, housing, and economic activity data. Tabular data are broken down by such variables as age, sex, and urban/rural residence. Data are organized as a series of statistical tables identified by country and table number. Each record consists of the data values associated with a single row of a given table. There are 105 tables with data for 208 countries. The second file is a note file, containing text of notes associated with various tables. These notes provide information such as definitions of categories (i.e. urban/rural) and how various values were calculated. The IDB was created in the U.S. Census Bureau''s International Programs Center (IPC) to help IPC staff meet the needs of organizations that sponsor IPC research. The IDB provides quick access to specialized information, with emphasis on demographic measures, for individual countries or groups of countries. The IDB combines data from country sources (typically censuses and surveys) with IPC estimates and projections to provide information dating back as far as 1950 and as far ahead as 2050. Because the IDB is maintained as a research tool for IPC sponsor requirements, the amount of information available may vary by country. As funding and research activity permit, the IPC updates and expands the data base content. Types of data include: * Population by age and sex * Vital rates, infant mortality, and life tables * Fertility and child survivorship * Migration * Marital status * Family planning Data characteristics: * Temporal: Selected years, 1950present, projected demographic data to 2050. * Spatial: 227 countries and areas. * Resolution: National population, selected data by urban/rural * residence, selected data by age and sex. Sources of data include: * U.S. Census Bureau * International projects (e.g., the Demographic and Health Survey) * United Nations agencies Links: * ICPSR: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/08490

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.

Global population numbers by religion [13].

Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Haryana data was reported at 50,353.000 Person in 03-01-2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 27,185.000 Person for 03-01-2001. Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Haryana data is updated decadal, averaging 38,769.000 Person from Mar 2001 (Median) to 03-01-2011, with 2 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 50,353.000 Person in 03-01-2011 and a record low of 27,185.000 Person in 03-01-2001. Census: Population: by Religion: Christian: Haryana data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Demographic – Table IN.GAE004: Census: Population: by Religion: Christian.

Population: Religion: Female: Taoism data was reported at 165.600 Person th in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 172.222 Person th for 2010. Population: Religion: Female: Taoism data is updated yearly, averaging 165.600 Person th from Jun 2000 (Median) to 2015, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 172.222 Person th in 2010 and a record low of 105.267 Person th in 2000. Population: Religion: Female: Taoism data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Department of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Singapore – Table SG.G002: Population by Religion .

Ipsos Global @dvisor wave 56 was conducted from April 1 to April 15, 2014. It included the following question sections: A: Demographic Profile, B: Consumer Confidence, R: Small Business/Executive Decision Makers Demo, IX: Global NGO's, IY: European Sentiment Questions, IZ: Socialogue, HR: Same Sex Marriage, HG: Religious Affiliation, HH: LGBT.