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.

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.

It was estimated that by 2050, India's Muslim population would grow by 76 percent compared to 2010. For followers of the Hindu faith, this change stood at 33 percent. According to this projection, the south Asian country would be home not just to the world's majority of Hindus, but also Muslims by this time period. Regardless, the latter would continue to remain a minority within the country at 18 percent, with 77 percent or 1.3 billion Hindus at the forefront by 2050.

This statistic shows the religious affiliation of the population in India as of 2011. In 2011, 79.8 percent of the total Indian population were Hindu.

This survey was jointly designed by Zogby International and the University of Rochester. The survey measures theology, tolerance, religious leaders, religion in politics, religion in society, and personal practice in India, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Israel, and the United States. In 2003, Zogby International conducted interviews of 600 adults in India (Hindu, Muslim); Peru (Roman Catholic); Russia (Russian Orthodox); Saudi Arabia (Muslim), and South Korea (Buddhist, Christian); 593 in Israel (Jewish, Muslim, Druze); and 795 in the United States (Catholic, Protestant). All interviews in India, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Israel were conducted face-to-face.

According to a survey conducted in 2020, 54 percent of Indian Americans in the United States said that they identified as Hindu while 13 percent said that they identified as Muslim. A further nine percent said that they identified with no religion in particular.

This dataset provides the unemployment rates for major religious groups in India, 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 unemployment trends within different religious communities.

With almost all major religions being practiced throughout the country, India is known for its religious diversity. Hinduism made up for the highest share of faith followed by people in the country. According to the Indian census of 2011, Muslims had the highest population growth in the country.

Due to religious heritages, increasing domestic and international pilgrimages, and government efforts to promote religious tourism; India religious tourism sector can be expected to witness substantial growth between 2025 and 2035. India has temples, Hindu temples, Buddhist monasteries, Sikh gurdwaras and Islamic mosques, which means the country is one of the best places for travellers for the road for faith.

Metric	Value
Market Size in 2025	USD 13.7 Billion
Projected Market Size in 2035	USD 58.6 Billion
CAGR (2025-2035)	15.6%

Region	CAGR (2025-2035)
Northern India	16.2%

Region	CAGR (2025-2035)
Western India	15.8%

Region	CAGR (2025-2035)
Southern India	16.0%

Region	CAGR (2025-2035)
Eastern and North-eastern India	15.7%

Company/Organization Name	Estimated Market Share (%)
IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation) Pilgrim Packages	20-25%
Yatra.com (Religious Tour Packages & Pilgrimage Booking)	12-16%
Thomas Cook India (Faith-Based Travel Division)	10-14%
SOTC Travel (India Religious Tourism Packages)	8-12%
State Tourism Boards (UP, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh)	5-9%
Other Travel Operators & Religious Trusts (combined)	30-40%

This project explored the efforts of Chrsitian nationalist activists and government officials to "actualize" the constitutional declaration that Zambia is a "Christian nation." The central component of the data are field notes from four months of participant-observation in Zambia’s government Ministry of National Guidance and Religious Affairs. In addition to this material are further fieldnotes outlining participant-observation at the 2018 National Day of Prayer, church-sponsored prayer meetings, and notes from interviews with church and government leaders. Finally, there are notes and recordings of a radio call-in show sponsored by the project. This live broadcast featured church leaders and political commentators debating the meaning of the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation, as well as comments from the national audience who phoned into the show.

There can be no doubt that we live in a world where religion has taken on a great deal of political importance. The rise of Hindu nationalism in India, debates about the Christian character of the European Union, and the implementation of Sharia law in several Nigerian states all point to the fact that famous social scientific predictions that secularism would follow modernity have not come to pass. These examples, as well as numerous others from across the globe, raise some important questions: What are the political effects of religious nationalism? How do changes in the political status of a religion impact ritual life, belief, and practice? Is it possible for a religious state to protect the rights of all of its citizens, including those that fall outside the religious boundaries it creates? And, perhaps most fundamentally, what role should religion play in public life? This project explores these broad questions through a specific case study: Zambia, the only African country to make a state-sponsored declaration that it is a Christian nation. "The declaration," as it is often called, has recently become a source of concern for international bodies like the UN, as it raises questions about the rights of sexual and religious minorities. The declaration is also a source of debate among Zambian Christians. Although for some, especially Pentecostals, the declaration represents an agreement with God that protects Zambia, other Christians have argued that it hinders the church's capacity for political critique. Empirical data on these debates, including a careful examination of what it means for Zambians from different backgrounds to live in a self-proclaimed Christian nation, will provide a picture of the realities of religious nationalism in a different context to that which we are used to seeing, as academic discussions of this topic have typically focused on the Islamic world or the secular West. The Zambian case therefore provides a fresh perspective on established debates. This is important not only because it expands academic knowledge, but also because it provides the public with stronger evidence for decision-making about the future role of religion in public life. In Zambia, these decisions will be made through a referendum to approve a new constitution, and with it the declaration. The UK is also facing important decisions about the public role of religion, for instance in debates about assisted suicide. Research on the declaration therefore has implications for public debate both in Zambia and at home in the UK. In order to understand Christian nationalism in Zambia, this project employs a mixture of established ethnographic tools and innovative, community-based methodologies. Given the role of media in shaping the public's idea of the nation, I pay particular attention to the way that political actors, church leaders, and ordinary Zambians engage with newspapers, television, and radio, as well as new media like blogs and online news sites. I will explore these issues through focus group discussions of news broadcasts, as well as a series of call-in radio shows that will allow the Zambian public to drive the direction and content of my research. This project will also engage with the discussions of Christian nationalism emerging from the religious sphere through ethnographic research in two churches. Finally, data will be collected through interviews with Zambian citizens whose rights are most obviously threatened by the declaration, namely members of religious and sexual minority communities. Following initial fieldwork in Zambia, I will collaborate with scholars working in other post-colonial countries in which Christianity plays a prominent role in state politics to develop a comparative picture of Christian nationalism in the Global South. This project will pave the way for a larger comparative study of religion and political economy.

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.

A survey conducted across India in 2024 found that 77 percent of Hindu population and 81 percent of minorities agree that India belongs to all religions equally. The survey reflects citizens' faith in the secular and pluralistic fabric of the country.

The dataset contain the primary census abstract categorised by religion in Arunachal Pradesh. The list contains different religions including Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jain, Sikh etc.. along with the region specifying whether it is urban or rural. The data is of the 2011 census.

This article was published on the anniversary of India's Republic day in January 2021 for the well-known online publication The Leaflet's special issue on citizenship, for a non-academic audience. The article traces a history of the Sindhi refugee diaspora in India in the aftermath of the partition of India, the absence of a linguistic and ethnically defined territory to which they could claim belonging, and the implications of this for their resettlement in India. The article looks back at how religion, ethnicity, and caste intersected with a lack of territorial belonging to produce Sindhi citizenship in India and the refugees' own struggles to claim belonging in India.In 2017 the Sindhi Hindu brothers Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja from the Shikarpur region of Sindh topped The Sunday Times' Rich List of the UK's wealthiest residents. Sindhi Hindus form the world's most widespread if not the most numerous South Asian diaspora. They have a long history of travel for trade and banking, for which evidence is available from the sixteenth century (although historians suggest that they were a highly mobile community even before this). They established more permanent roots outside of Sindh after the 1947 partition of India. When the British divided their Indian empire in 1947, unlike Punjab, Bengal, and Assam, they did not partition Sindh (today a part of the Muslim-majority country of Pakistan), despite the minority campaign for a partition of the region. Sindh's 'partition' in 1947 was thus a deterritorialised and demographic one, producing over a million 'non-Muslim' refugees who resettled in India and abroad, including the United Kingdom. Sindhis have played a significant role in the UK's economic, political, legal and social histories, however the origins of this diaspora remain relatively unknown in the UK and even in India. Often mistaken for Punjabis and Gujaratis in both countries, they tend to keep a low-profile. They do not follow orthodox Hindu religious or caste practice; their faith is a blend of Sikh, Sufi, and Hindu traditions and they are therefore difficult to 'fix' in 'place'. However, Sindhis continually reappear on the fringes of discussions about religion, ethnicity, and territory. Their post-partition history needs to be recovered. The main objective of my fellowship will be to publish my research on the Sindh diaspora in the United Kingdom and India for both an academic audience and the wider public. It will illuminate a history of British partitions from Sindh, a region that witnessed a movement for autonomy within the empire much before the partition of 1947. It will demonstrate the influence Sindhi nationalism had on British administrators as far away as Palestine and partition plans there. It will trace the paths of Sindhi refugees after 1947, particularly to the United Kingdom, where they have made a huge but understated economic and social impact. I will collect data on the dates of arrival of this diaspora in the UK from Sindh and India; the sorts of businesses they established in the UK, and the relative rates of success of these businesses after partition. My research will also address the question of how heterodox South Asian religious traditions survive or have been threatened in the aftermath of partition and how this relates to Sindhi Hindu commercial and organisational support for militant Hindu nationalism in India and the UK. This is an article largely based on historical research carried out in archives such as The British Library, The National Archives of India, The Sindh Archives and legal archives such as the repositories of case law of the Indian Supreme Court and High Courts.

Christianity was the largest religion in a high number of the countries included in the survey. Of the countries, Peru, South Africa, and Poland had the highest share of Christians at around 75 percent. Moreover, around 90 percent in India and Thailand stated that they believed in another religion, with Hinduism and Buddhism being the major religion in the two countries respectively. Sweden and South Korea were the only two countries where 50 percent or more of the respondents stated that they did not have any religious beliefs.

The Asia Pacific religious tourism industry is set to progress steadily, with an estimated CAGR of 11.4% between 2024 and 2034. Starting at USD 7,940.1 million in 2024, it's on track to zoom past USD 23,371 million by 2034.

Attributes	Description
Estimated Asia Pacific Religious Tourism Industry Size (2024E)	USD 7,940.1 million
Projected Asia Pacific Religious Tourism Industry Value (2034F)	USD 23,371 million
Value-based CAGR (2024 to 2034)	11.4%

Semi Annual Industry Update

Particular	Value CAGR
H1	11.6% (2023 to 2033)
H2	10.9% (2023 to 2033)
H1	11.7% (2024 to 2034)
H2	11% (2024 to 2034)

Country-wise Insights

Countries	CAGR 2024 to 2034
India	13.6%
China	12.7%
Japan	12.1%

Category-wise Insights

Segment	Religious and Heritage Tours (Type)
Value Share (2024)	33.7%

Segment	46 to 55 Years (Age Group)
Value Share (2024)	29.3%

Abstract

The World Values Survey (www.worldvaluessurvey.org) is a global network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life, led by an international team of scholars, with the WVS association and secretariat headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The survey, which started in 1981, seeks to use the most rigorous, high-quality research designs in each country. The WVS consists of nationally representative surveys conducted in almost 100 countries which contain almost 90 percent of the world’s population, using a common questionnaire. The WVS is the largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed, currently including interviews with almost 400,000 respondents. Moreover the WVS is the only academic study covering the full range of global variations, from very poor to very rich countries, in all of the world’s major cultural zones. The WVS seeks to help scientists and policy makers understand changes in the beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world. Thousands of political scientists, sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists and economists have used these data to analyze such topics as economic development, democratization, religion, gender equality, social capital, and subjective well-being. These data have also been widely used by government officials, journalists and students, and groups at the World Bank have analyzed the linkages between cultural factors and economic development.

Geographic coverage

This survey covers India.

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual

Universe

The WVS for India cover national population, aged 18 years and over, for both sexes.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample size for India is N=2040 and includes national population, aged 18 years and over, for both sexes.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The WVS questionnaire was in Hindu. Some special variable labels have been included such as: V56 Neighbours: Muslims and V149 Institution: SAARC. Special categories labels are: V167 Least liked groups: 1. stands for “Musims”, 2. for Capitalists, 3. for Stalinists/Hard-line communists, 4. for Inmigrants/People from other countries, 5. for Homosexuals, 6. for Criminals, 7. for Neonazis/ Right extremists, 8. for Shiv senal/VHP/ Bajrang Dal, 9. People from other states. The following variables are also different in India: V167 Least Liked Groups; V179: Religion; V208 Ethnic identification; V209 Language at home; V210 to V212 Political Parties; V233 Ethnic group and V234 Region. The V206 Born in this country is also different in India.

Sampling error estimates

+/- 2,2%

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.

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.

 

With almost all major religions being practiced throughout the country, India is known for its religious diversity. Islam makes up the highest share among minority faiths in the country. According to the Indian census of 2011, the Muslim population in Uttar Pradesh more than 35 million, making it the state with the most Muslims.

Socio-economic conditions of Muslims
Muslims seem to lag behind every other religious community in India in terms of living standards, financial stability, education and other aspects, thereby showing poor performance in most of the fields. According to a national survey, 17 percent of the Muslims were categorized under the lowest wealth index, which indicates poor socio-economic conditions.

Growth of Muslim population in India
Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions worldwide. According to India’s census, the Muslim population has witnessed a negative decadal growth of more than 16 percent from 1951 to 1960, presumably due to the partitions forming Pakistan and Bangladesh. The population showed a positive and steady growth since 1961, making up 14 percent of the total population of India . Even though people following Islam were estimated to grow significantly, they would still remain a minority in India compared to 1.3 billion Hindus by 2050.