Which religion dominates the world

Not all babies will remain in the religion of their mother, of course. In some countries, including the United States, it is fairly common for adults to leave their childhood religion and switch to another faith or no faith. Globally, however, the effect of religious switching is overshadowed by the impact of differences in fertility and mortality. Indeed, fertility differences between religious groups are one of the key factors behind current population trends and will be important for future growth.

Globally, Muslims have the highest fertility rate of any religious group — an average of 2. This fertility advantage is one reason why Muslims are expected to catch up with Christians in absolute number and as a share of the global population in the coming decades. Christians have the second highest fertility rate, at 2.

Hindu and Jewish fertility 2. All other major religious groups have fertility levels too low to sustain their populations. Learn about Muslims and Islam through four short lessons delivered to your inbox every other day.

Sign up now! Age differences are also important for future growth. Muslims have the youngest median age 24 of all religious groups, which is also expected to contribute to their rapid growth.

All the other groups are older than the global median, which is part of the reason they are expected to fall behind the pace of global population growth. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum. Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains. The festival lasts five days and the story behind the festival differs for each of the three religions. Although the group faces a great deal of criticism and gender discrimination, the women are persisting with their art and working to inspire others.

I accept. Devotees try to form a human pyramid to break a clay pot, to mark the Hindu festival of Janmashtami in Mumbai. Frank Jacobs , Big Think. Take action on UpLink. Explore context. Explore the latest strategic trends, research and analysis.

At a glance, this map shows both the size and distribution of world religions. See how religions mix at both national and regional level. There's one country in the Americas without a Christian majority — which? Image: Carrie Osgood. Christianity blue dominates in the Americas, Europe and the southern half of Africa.

Islam green is the top religion in a string of countries from northern Africa through the Middle East to Indonesia. India stands out as a huge Hindu bloc dark orange. Buddhism light orange is the majority religion in South East Asia and Japan. The Americas are mostly solidly Christian. Which is the least Christian country in the Americas? The answer may surprise you. Other countries with a lot of 'grey' in their pies include Canada, Cuba, Argentina and Chile.

Demographic Study. As part of the next phase of this project, Pew Research has produced an index that ranks each country by its level of religious diversity. Comparing religious diversity across countries presents many challenges, starting with the definition of diversity. Each of these approaches can be applied to the study of religious diversity.

This study, however, takes a relatively straightforward approach to religious diversity. That study was based on a country-by-country analysis of data from more than 2, national censuses, large-scale surveys and official population registers that were collected, evaluated and standardized by Pew Research staff and, in the case of European countries, by researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria.

Some efforts to measure religious diversity have attempted to take into account subgroups of the major religious traditions. For this reason, the study is limited to the eight major categories described above. However, in the overwhelming majority of countries, these religions are not specifically measured in censuses, large-scale surveys or population registers.

The Religious Diversity Index is a version of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, which is commonly used in environmental and business studies to measure the degree of ecological diversity or market concentration. The main difference is that Religious Diversity Index scores are inverted so that higher scores indicate higher diversity.

For more details on the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index and the methods used to calculate the Religious Diversity Index scores, see the Methodology. The point Religious Diversity Index is divided into four ranges: Countries with scores of 7. Countries with scores from 5. No countries in Europe, North America or the Middle East-North Africa region have a very high degree of religious diversity as measured in this study.