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.

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.

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.

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.

Are different religions associated with different social, cognitive, and emotional tendencies? Although major world religions are known to encourage social interactions and help regulate emotions, it is less clear to what extent adherents of various religions differ in these dimensions in daily life. We thus carried out a large-scale sociolinguistic analysis of social media messages of Christians and Buddhists living in the United States. After controlling for age and gender effects on linguistic patterns, we found that Christians used more social words and fewer cognitive words than Buddhists. Moreover, adherents of both religions, similarly used more positive than negative emotion words on Twitter, although overall, Christians were slightly more positive in verbal emotional expression than Buddhists. These sociolinguistic patterns of actual rather than ideal behaviors were also paralleled by language used in the popular sacred texts of Christianity and Buddhism, with the exception that Christian texts contained more negative and fewer positive emotion words than Buddhist texts. Taken together, our results suggest that the direct or indirect influence of religious texts on the receivers of their messages may partially, but not fully, account for the verbal behavior of religious adherents.

This statistic shows the estimated number of Christians in 1910 and 2010 by global north and global south. In 1910, the majority of the Christian population lived in the global north (503 million adherents), while only a sixth of the Christians lived in the global south (109 million adherents). This ratio has changed. In 2010, the majority of the Christian population now lives in the global south (1.3 billion adherents), and only a third of the global Christian population lives in the north (856 million adherents).

This statistic shows the giving levels across congregations in the United States in 2008, by faith tradition. As of 2008, about 11 percent of Catholic adherents give 10 percent or more of their net income regularly to church.

The footnotes in the table are represented in brackets. The first footnote does not appear in the table.Footnotes: 1 For the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) estimates, the global non-response rate (GNR) is used as an indicator of data quality. This indicator combines complete non-response (household) and partial non-response (question) into a single rate. The value of the GNR is presented to users. A smaller GNR indicates a lower risk of non-response bias and as a result, lower risk of inaccuracy. The threshold used for estimates' suppression is a GNR of 50% or more. For more information, please refer to the National Household Survey User Guide, 2011.2 Non-immigrant refers to a person who is a Canadian citizen by birth.3 Immigrant refers to a person who is or has ever been a landed immigrant/permanent resident. This person has been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration authorities. Some immigrants have resided in Canada for a number of years, while others have arrived recently. Some immigrants are Canadian citizens, while others are not. Most immigrants are born outside Canada, but a small number are born in Canada. In the 2011 National Household Survey, 'Immigrants' includes immigrants who landed in Canada prior to May 10, 2011.4 Includes immigrants who landed in Canada prior to May 10, 2011.5 Non-permanent resident refers to a person from another country who has a work or study permit, or who is a refugee claimant, and any non-Canadian-born family member living in Canada with them.6 Catholic, n.i.e. includes, for example, Polish Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Syrian Catholic, Catholic not included elsewhere, etc.7 Churches of Christ/Christian Churches includes Disciples of Christ.8 Community of Christ was formerly known as 'Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.'9 Grace Communion International was formerly known as 'Worldwide Church of God.'10 Wesleyan includes Standard Church.11 Christian, n.i.e. includes those who report only 'Christian' and Christian religions not included elsewhere such as Born Again Christian, Apostolic not included elsewhere, Messianic Jew, Hutterite, etc.

The majority of Japanese adhere to Shintoism, a traditional Japanese religion focusing on rituals and worship at shrines. In 2021, around 48.6 percent of the total population of Japan participated in Shinto practices. Closely behind is Buddhism, with more than 46 percent of the population adhering to its practices. Most Japanese thus practice both religions. The original ShintoShintoism adherents worship spirits or gods at shrines, often publicly, through rituals and traditions. Shintoism is deeply ingrained in the Japanese culture and way of life, but the number of followers has been decreasing over the past years, as has the number of Japanese who are adhering to any kind of religion. Tradition seems to have to make way for modern attitudes and choices – still the number of people who call themselves Shinto adherents is quite high, even if they do not actively practice it. Everything zen in BuddhismWhile Shintoism seems to become a thing of the past, the number of Buddhists, on the other hand, has been stable over the last decade, and if anything, has only slightly decreased. Japan is, in fact, among the countries with the largest Buddhist communities, right after China, of course, and Thailand. This might be due to Buddhism being able to adapt much easier to modern times and its adherents’ everyday lives, as well as a better PR machine – Buddhism is, after all, also quite popular in the Western world.

Data on religion by visible minority, generation status, age and gender for the population in private households in Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas, census agglomerations and parts.

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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.

This statistic shows the sources of congregational income of churches in the United States in 2008, by church size. As of 2008, trust funds, investments, bequets were the source of about 41 percent of income of small churches with up to 100 members.

This statistic shows the median donation per worshipper of churches in the United States in 2008, by church size. As of 2008, the median donation per worshipper of mid-sized churches (101 to 350 members) was at 1,656 U.S. dollars per year.

This graph shows the number of ordained clergy serving religious parishes in the United States in 2009, by church. In 2009, about 105 thousand clergy members were serving the Southern Baptist Convention.

This statistic shows the sources of congregational income of churches in the United States in 2008, by faith tradition. As of 2008, trust funds, investments, bequets were the source of about 48 percent of Mainline Protestant churches in the United States.

This statistic shows the percentage of church income by individual donations in the United States in 2008, by faith tradition. As of 2008, individual donations make up for about 97 percent of income of Conservative Protestant churches in the United States.

This statistic shows the median donation per worshipper of churches in the United States in 2008, by faith tradition. As of 2008, the median donation per worshipper of Mainline Protestant churches was at 1,627 U.S. dollars per year.

In 2021, 53.3 percent of the total population in Canada were Christian, 4.9 percent were Muslim, but almost more than a third are not religious at all – with the rest stating they adhere to Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, the Jewish faith, and other Christian denominations. Canada’s religious pluralismCanada is not a very religious country in general. Canadians adhere to a wide variety of beliefs and faiths, with the majority following Christianity, followed by those who do not believe in any deity or religion at all. As with many Western countries, the younger generations are less inclined to identify with faith, and Christianity in particular is not as popular as it is among the older generations. Alternative worship for the younger generations?Canadian teenagers are no less enthusiastic about religion than their parents, and they are just as grounded in their faith as the older generations. They are, however, also just as indecisive when it comes to whether they would call themselves religious or not. Interestingly, they seem much more interested in traditional aboriginal spirituality than in the Judeo-Christian model. They also seem quite interested in another alternative to Christianity: Buddhism is quite popular among the younger generations. Whether this signifies a general trend away from Christianity and towards religious alternatives remains to be seen.

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.