Major religious groups: Difference between revisions

Major religions have been distinguished from minor religions using a variety of methods, though any such division naturally reflects a particular bias, since many adherents of a religion are likely to consider their own faith "major". Two methods are mentioned in this article, number of adherents and the definitions used by classical scholars of religions.

For a list of all religions, please see the article list of religions.

For a discussion of the relationships between religions, see Religious pluralism

One way to define a major religion is by the number of current adherents. Population numbers by religion are computed by combination of census reports and population surveys (in countries where religion data is not collected in census, for example USA or France), but results can vary widely depending on the way questions are phrased, the definitions of religion used, and the bias of the agencies or organizations conducting the survey. Informal or unorganized religions are especially difficult to count.

This listing distinguishes between organized religion, which has a single belief code and religious hierarchies, and informal religions, such as Chinese folk religions.

1. Christianity 2.1 billion (Began: ca. 27 AD/CE)
   • Roman Catholicism: 1.085 billion
   • Protestantism (including Anglicanism): 674 million (Began: ca. 1520)
   • Eastern Orthodoxy: 200 million
   • Oriental Orthodoxy, Assyrians, and other Christians: 350 million
   • Latter-day Saints (Mormons) 12.6 million (Began: ca. 1830)
   • New Apostolic Church 11.5 million (Began: ca. 1832)
2. Islam 1.5 billion (Began: ca. 622 AD/CE)
   • Sunnism: 940 million
   • Shi'ism: 170 million
   • Sufi, Ibadiyyah, Druze and other Muslims : 80 million
3. Secular/irreligious/agnostic/atheist/antitheistic/antireligious 1.1 billion
   • Category includes a wide range of beliefs, without specifically adhering to a religion. The category also includes humanism, deism, pantheism, and freethought. For more information, see the Adherents.com discussion of this category.
4. Hinduism 944 million (Began: approximately 1500 BC/BCE)
   • Vaishnavism: 580 million
   • Shaivism: 220 million
   • Shaktism/Smartism/Arya Samaj/Other sects: 150 million
5. Buddhism 708 million (Began: 6th century BC/BCE)
   • Mahayana: 185 million
   • Theravada: 124 million
   • Vajrayana: unknown
6. Primal indigenous 300 million
   • Not a single organized religion, includes a wide range of primarily Asian traditional or tribal religions, including Shamanism and Paganism.
7. African traditional and diasporic 100 million
   • Not a single organized religion, this includes traditional African beliefs such as Yoruba as well as diasporic beliefs such as Santeria (which itself draws from Catholicism) and Vodoun.
8. Shintoism 69 million (Began: 300 BC/BCE)
   • This number states the number of practicing followers of Shintoism; for if partial or ethnic followers of Shintoism were included, the number would fall around 100–115 million.
9. Sikhism 23 million (Began: 1500s)
10. Juche 19 million
    • Not considered a religion by adherents, who view it as secular and anti-revisionist. Juche is the political ideology of the Workers Party of Korea, the ruling party of the DPRK; some have argued it constitutes a religion due to its Great Leader Worship characteristics. The number is approximately the entire population of the country.
11. Spiritism 15 million (Began: mid-19th century)
    • Not a single organized religion, includes a variety of beliefs including some forms of Umbanda.
12. Judaism 15 million (Began: 13th century BC/BCE)
13. Bahá'í Faith 7 million (Began: 19th century)
14. Falun Gong 2.1 million* (Began: 1992)
    • Not necessarily considered a religion by adherents or outside observers. No membership or rosters, thus the actual figure of practitioners is impossible to confirm.
15. Jainism 4.2 million (Began: 6th century BC/BCE)
16. Cao Dai 4 million (Began: 1926)
17. Zoroastrianism 2.6 million (Began: ca. 6th century BC/BCE)
18. Tenrikyo 2 million (Began: 1838)
19. Neopaganism 1 million (Began: 20th century)
    • A blanket term for several religions like Wicca, Asatru, Druidry, and many reconstructionist religions
20. Unitarian Universalism 800,000 (Began: 1961)
21. Rasta 600,000 (Began: early 1930s)

Source of statistics for all religons but Falun Gong: adherents.com, updated 2005. These statistics are based on analysis of a range of sources on religious populations, for more on the methodology, please see Adherent.com's explanation.

*The Falun Gong estimate is that of the People's Republic of China; the Falun Gong leadership claims 100 million.

The Christian Science Monitor used a separate standard, examining only organized religions. The newspaper listed the following in 1998 as the "Top 10 Organized Religions in the World" based on descending level of population:

• 1 Number of Adherents is from www.adherents.com on 07/07/2006

Major religions have also been identified based on their perceived importance, whether theological or temporal. This sorting has been generally been the preserve of Western, Christian scholars, so lists of classic major religions betray this bias. Early Christian scholars, the earliest known classifiers of major religions, recognized only three religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism (which they considered to encompass every other religion). Views evolved during the Enlightenment, however, and, by the 19th century, Western scholars considered the five major religions to be Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. As the exposure of Westerners to other religions increased, six other religions were added to the original five: Confucianism, Taoism, Jainism, Shinto, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism. Later, the Bahá'í Faith was added to this list, resulting in twelve classic religions:

• Bahá'í Faith
• Buddhism
• Christianity
• Confucianism
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Jainism
• Judaism
• Taoism
• Shinto
• Sikhism
• Zoroastrianism

Modern Western definitions of major religion come from the classical definition, often expanding on "Christianity," and omitting Jainism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism. An example is this list found in the New York Public Library Student Reference:

• Buddhism
• Christianity
• Confucianism
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Judaism

• List of religions
• Religious pluralism

• A discussion on definitions of major religions
• BBC Listing of Major Religions