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Mapping The World's Major Religions
Survivalnomics ^ | 02/12/2022

Posted on 02/12/2022 9:07:43 PM PST by SeekAndFind

The world has become increasingly more secular in the last few decades. However, as Visual Capitalist's Anshool Deshmukh details below, religion remains an integral part of many people’s lives, and 84% of the world’s population identifies with a religious group.

The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world’s major religions, as well as by people switching faiths.

With the help of data from Pew Research Center, we break down the religious composition of the major religions in countries worldwide.

Religious Makeup of the World by Major Religions

Determining the exact number of religions across the world is a daunting task. Many religions can be difficult to categorize or to tell apart for those not intimately familiar with their doctrine.

Pew Research Center organizes the world’s religions into seven major categories, which includes five major religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism), one category that broadly includes all Folk/Traditional religions, and an unaffiliated category.

Globally, Christianity has the largest following of these categories. Around 31% of the world’s population are Christians, closely followed by Muslims at 25%. Jews have the smallest population of major religions, with only 0.2% of the world identifying as Jewish.

Let’s take a look at the religious composition of the world when accounting for regions:

From Islam being the dominant religion in the Middle East to over 95% of Cambodians and Thais following Buddhism, here’s how prevalent every major religion in the world is.

Christianity

The world’s largest religion, Christianity, is practiced by about 2.4 billion people.

The country with the highest number of practicing Christians is the United States, with a Christian population of 253 million. Brazil and Mexico follow closely with 185 million and 118 million Christians, respectively.

Christianity has historically spread around the globe and today it remains a geographically widespread religion. Over the past century, it has become less concentrated in Europe while becoming more evenly distributed throughout the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Islam

Even though it’s the predominant religion of countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, by sheer number, countries in Asia have the highest percentage of practicing Muslims in the world.

It may surprise you to know that 14.2% of Indians are Muslim. As a result, the country is home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations, surpassed only by Indonesia.

Islam is also the world’s fastest-growing major religion. The number of Muslims is expected to increase by 70%, from 1.8 billion in 2015 to nearly 3 billion in 2060. The fact that they have the youngest median age, at 24, also helps this population growth.

Judaism

While Jews historically have been found all around the globe, Judaism is highly geographically concentrated today. More than four-fifths of all Jews live in just two countries: the United States and Israel. Israel is the only country with a Jewish majority, with 76% of the population being practicing Jews.

The largest remaining shares of the global Jewish population apart from the U.S. and Israel are in Canada (about 3% of the country’s population), France (2%), the United Kingdom (2%), Germany (2%), Russia (2%) and Argentina (between 1% and 2%).

Unaffiliated

The religiously unaffiliated population includes atheists, agnostics, and people who do not identify with any particular religion. 720 million of the Chinese population consider themselves religiously unaffiliated, while 78% of Czechs feel the same way.

However, it is worth noting that many of the religiously unaffiliated hold some religious or spiritual beliefs. For example, surveys have found that faith in God or a higher power is shared by 7% of unaffiliated Chinese adults, 30% of unaffiliated French adults, and 68% of unaffiliated U.S. adults.

Hinduism

Hinduism is the third-largest religion worldwide, with approximately 1.2 billion Hindus in many countries. Interestingly, however, Hinduism is the dominant religion in only three countries, India with 79%, Nepal with 80%, and Mauritius with 48%.

Although Hinduism is rarely a country’s primary religion, it still enjoys a global presence. Many regions around the world support significant populations of Hindus, including the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, North America, and South America.

Buddhism

According to estimates, half the world’s Buddhists live in China. Still, they make up only 18% of the country’s population. Most of the rest of the world’s Buddhists live in East and South Asia, including 13% in Thailand (where 93% of the population is Buddhist).

Buddhism in Asia is a matter of both identity and practice. Scholars and journalists have documented that many Asian countries may engage in Buddhist practices without considering themselves part of any organized religion.

Folk Religion

Folk religion is any ethnic or cultural religious practice that falls outside the doctrine of organized religion. Grounded on popular beliefs and sometimes called popular or vernacular religion, the term refers to how people experience and practice religion in their daily lives.

As of 2020, an estimated 429 million people, about 6% of the world’s total population, were adherents of folk or traditional religions. Some notable folk religions include African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions, and Australian aboriginal religions.


TOPICS: Current Events; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: religions; world

1 posted on 02/12/2022 9:07:44 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The problem with maps like these is they fall apart when they hit Asia.

The concept of having “a religion” only exists for the monotheistic faiths.

Across Asia every society has a complex mix of Buddhist philosophy, polytheistic gods, nature spirits, and national ideology.


2 posted on 02/12/2022 9:20:45 PM PST by Renfrew
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To: SeekAndFind

Thanks.
BKMK


3 posted on 02/12/2022 9:21:18 PM PST by Faith65 (Isaiah 40:31 )
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To: SeekAndFind
Misleading on Christianity. Most "Christians" Christian in name only. In other words:

Matthew 7:22-23 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

4 posted on 02/12/2022 9:34:10 PM PST by DouglasKC
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To: Nailbiter

interesting


5 posted on 02/12/2022 9:34:33 PM PST by Nailbiter
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To: Renfrew

That being said, one harbinger of civilizational collapse is loss of belief in the religions that made the civilization possible. For us it is Christianity and to a smaller extent Judaism (nice to see Latin America is largely Christian, time to revive my Spanish). India has stuck to its Hindu roots. Same for Israel and Judaism.

Ok now look at China, the most athiestic country on the face of the planet. Does turning your back on Buddhism and Taoism sound like the road to prosperity? Does believing in Xi Jinping and his orbit of international billionaires sound like a good replacement for traditional values?

Could the Mayan god-emporers make the rains fall if enough hearts were sacrificed? No. Time will tell if the “elites” in China and the West can do what the Mayan god-rulers could not. If they can it will be a first in world history.


6 posted on 02/12/2022 9:41:57 PM PST by packagingguy
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s kind of interesting, the inverse relationship of christianity to shiitehole countries. But I think there are far more christians in China than otherwise known, due to the underground church there, perhaps 300million of them which is almost as big as the entire population of the US.


7 posted on 02/12/2022 9:43:33 PM PST by Kevmo (I’m immune from Covid since I don’t watch TV.🤗)
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To: SeekAndFind

At least 10% of Chinese are Christians, even if they can’t be open about it.

Secularism is only on the rise in Europe, because Christianity has been so successful in creating a life that man now thinks he can be self-sufficient.


8 posted on 02/12/2022 10:14:36 PM PST by Jonty30 (How can you claim to help me with my healthcare costs when you can't pay for your own?)
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To: DouglasKC

You are not supposed to mention that verse. Stick with ‘Judge not, lest you be judged’.


9 posted on 02/12/2022 10:49:41 PM PST by week 71
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To: Jonty30

Proverbs 30:7-9 NIV
“Two things I ask of you, LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.


10 posted on 02/12/2022 11:16:57 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: packagingguy
"Could the Mayan god-emporers make the rains fall if enough hearts were sacrificed? No. Time will tell if the “elites” in China and the West can do what the Mayan god-rulers could not. If they can it will be a first in world history."

The answer to your rhetorical question is contained within your paragraph. It is this: in back of Mayan god-emperers were Powers and Principalities relishing the idea of being worshipped by humans. After the crucifixion of Christ and before coming back into the world, He punished Powers and Principalities and forbid them to ever again act as gods and goddesses.

In our own time, Powers and Principalities stand in back of Globalists, both East and West. Since they cannot be worshipped they've been unleashing catastrophe through a long line of human-tools such as Marx, Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky, Hitler, Mao, etc. The same will occur through Global 'elites.' and their national-level Ruling Class puppets.

11 posted on 02/13/2022 2:34:51 AM PST by spirited irish ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

Their first immediate target is to sure up the continent of africa


12 posted on 02/13/2022 3:30:13 AM PST by inchworm (al )
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To: SeekAndFind

And Satan has his hands in every religion.

Thanks for posting this info..


13 posted on 02/13/2022 7:40:11 AM PST by delchiante
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To: Phinneous; SJackson; BTerclinger; Jewbacca

Israel is the only country with a Jewish majority, with 76% of the population being practicing Jews.

Must be the "Spirit of '76" then...

At the outset, the Torah connects Jacob with Joseph. Of all his sons specifically Joseph holds the key to not only Jacob's but the family's ission*. LINK

There's the ankh key at the end of Joseph's Egyptian code name:

שם יוסף צפנת פענח

Besides the regular Hebrew key [מפתח]:

שם יוסף צפנת פענח

The Nile was the veritable governor over all life in Egypt, thus intrinsically associated with the ankh, the Egyptian key of life, immortality.

In modern Hebrew, the Nile is נילוס, which = 156 = Yosef [יוסף].

De Nile, it's not just a river in EGYPT...

Gen 45
25. And they went up from Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father:
26. And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt; And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not:

*that "typo" is at the link. Perhaps the Author meant permission.

Of all his sons specifically Joseph holds the key to not only Jacob's but the family's permission:

45.7. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance..

bones = skeleton

A skeleton key (also known in North America as a passkey[1]) is a type of master key in which the serrated edge has been removed in such a way that it can open numerous locks[2], most commonly the warded lock. The term derives from the fact that the key has been reduced to its essential parts.[2]

The term is also used synonymously with master key to refer to any key, keycard or other device capable of opening a variety of locks.

Skeleton Key

Rain, childbirth, resurrection of the dead, sustenance. So many mysterious keys. Not to be entrusted to any one agent mind you.

Yankhkeys... what can you do with them? Can't live with them, can't live without them.

Gotta laugh because there's WAMO on that Aish page. Joseph, yesod... it never ends:

The Kabbalistic term associated with Joseph is Yesod, meaning "foundation," as in Tzaddik Yesod Olam, meaning "a good nd just man is the foundation of the world." Alternatively, Joseph is the foundation of the Jewish people. Had Joseph been killed, or disappeared in the slavemarkets of Egypt, the foundation of the nation would have been missing as well.

Perhaps now we can understand another episode in the Torah. When the Jews finally leave Egypt, Moses heads to the Nile in order to recover the remains of Joseph and to fulfill the promise to bring Joseph's remains out of Egypt. Why, at such a crucial moment, would Moses himself take on this task?

We know that Moses was found as an infant by the daughter of Pharaoh. His sister Miriam, who observed this scene from afar, then offered to find a nurse for the baby, intending, of course, to take him back home again.

Back home, to his mother:

"A little girl led me to the Hebrew woman Yochabel."

For her contribution in the theatre, [Yochabel] has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6126 Hollywood Boulevard.

The name Fonda means "foundation", and the address of the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood is 6126 Hollywood Boulevard.

A Hebrew equivalent to dream on is... literally, you're living in a movie.

We shall see what will become of his dreams.

Eyes are the windows to the soul.

[Roy Orbison's song] Crying, at the Fonda (3:33)

"It's hard to understand, but the touch of your hand, can start me crying." ~ The Wailing Wall

With the rising sun
On her wedding day
She raised her eyes to the heavens
And she thanked Hashem
For the man of truth
With whom she would build a nation.

Mama Rochel - רחל אימנו

You really have to search for Serach, because on the movie's wiki page (English) she's nowhere to be found. Then on the actress' page, she's only listed as -- Frail Old Lady (uncredited)

But the movie's Hebrew page identified her:

"שרח (אדלין דה וולט ריינולדס) - עבריה שעוזרת למשה למצוא את ארונו של יוסף"

Serach (Adeline de Walt Reynolds) - Hebrew who helps Moses find Joseph's coffin.

27. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them; and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived:
28. And Israel said, Rav Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die:

Here's that very scene. Even with the coffin. (8:17)

Serach has one word: "Joshua!"

###

"Arise all Israel! Behold the dawn of freedom!"

Any questions?

14 posted on 02/13/2022 8:38:29 AM PST by Ezekiel ("Come fly with US". Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with Mars.)
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