Source Notes
Source Notes: World Religions by Population
An intermediate note for organizing research material, evidence links, issue structure, and inclusion decisions before the reader-facing article is written.
Source Notes: World Religions by Population
Scope
- The report covers 2020 global religious population, country concentration by major religion, denominations and branches, and how to count smaller religions.
- The update also adds public-opinion material that separates Judaism, U.S. White evangelicals, Israel, Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas.
- The baseline for world totals and the seven categories is Pew Research Center’s June 2025 estimates for 2010 and 2020.
- Country ranking tables come from the appendix tables in Pew’s 2025 report PDF.
- Denominational and branch data are not included in Pew’s 2025 seven-category table. The report therefore uses Pew 2011 for Christian traditions, Pew 2009 for Muslim sects, Pew 2012 for Buddhist branches, Pew 2020 for U.S. Jewish denominations, and Indian 2011 census-linked releases for smaller religions in India.
- The 2050 discussion uses Pew’s 2015 projection only as an older scenario because Pew revised its 2010 baseline in the 2025 release.
Source Inventory
| Source | Use | Role in report |
|---|---|---|
| Pew Research Center, How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020 | Seven 2020 categories, 2010-2020 change, drivers of major group change | Main global data |
| Pew 2025 report PDF | Top country tables for Christians, Muslims, unaffiliated, Hindus, Buddhists, other religions, and Jews | Country tables under each religion heading |
| Pew dataset page | Seven categories, 201 countries and territories, more than 2,700 sources, UN WPP 2024 | Method and limits |
| Pew, Global Christianity | Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and other Christian shares in 2010 | Older guide to Christian traditions |
| Pew, Mapping the Global Muslim Population | Sunni, Shia, Shia concentration, limits for Sufi estimates | Older guide to Muslim sects |
| Pew, Beliefs about God in India | Indian Hindu views about God and closeness to deities | Hinduism caveat |
| Pew, Buddhists | Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana country concentration | Buddhist branch description |
| Pew, Jewish identity and belief in the U.S. | U.S. Jewish adult Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, no denomination and other shares | U.S. example for Judaism |
| Pew, U.S. Jews’ connections with and attitudes toward Israel | How central caring about Israel is for U.S. Jewish identity | Guardrail against equating Judaism with Israel |
| Pew, Views of the Israel-Hamas war | U.S. religious-group views of Israel’s reasons for fighting and conduct of the war | Judaism and evangelical linkage scope |
| Pew, Americans’ views of Israelis, Palestinians and their political leadership | U.S. views of Israelis, Israeli government, Palestinians, PA, and Hamas | Palestine opinion breakdown |
| Pew, Negative views of Israel, low confidence in Netanyahu across 36 countries | Favorable and unfavorable views of Israel across 36 countries | Non-U.S. climate |
| Pew, Israeli Views of the Israel-Hamas War | Israeli views of military response and ideological differences | Israeli domestic opinion |
| PRRI, 2023 Census of American Religion | U.S. population shares for White evangelical Protestants, Jewish Americans, and other groups | U.S. political-population scale |
| Press Information Bureau, Government of India | 2011 India census counts for Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and others | Named smaller-religion counts |
| Pew, Religious Diversity Around the World | Religious Diversity Index, country majorities, regional diversity | Country diversity section |
| Pew, The Future of World Religions | Older 2050 projection scenario | Projection caveat |
Key Extracted Figures
World Totals
| Category | 2020 estimate | World share |
|---|---|---|
| Christianity | 2,268,860,000 | 28.8% |
| Islam | 2,022,590,000 | 25.6% |
| Religiously unaffiliated | 1,905,360,000 | 24.2% |
| Hinduism | 1,177,860,000 | 14.9% |
| Buddhism | 324,190,000 | 4.1% |
| Other religions | 172,170,000 | 2.2% |
| Judaism | About 14,780,000 | 0.2% |
Country Ranking Notes
- Christianity: the United States, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, and Russia lead; the top 10 countries account for 46.8% of the world’s Christians.
- Islam: Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh lead; the top 10 countries account for 65.0% of the world’s Muslims.
- Religiously unaffiliated: China alone accounts for 67.1%; the top 10 countries account for 88.5%.
- Hinduism: India alone accounts for 94.5%; India and Nepal together account for more than 96%.
- Buddhism: Thailand, China, Myanmar, and Japan are the largest; the top 10 countries account for 91.2%.
- Other religions: China, India, Taiwan, and Brazil are large, but the category has different internal content by country.
- Judaism: Israel and the United States together account for 84.7%.
Inclusion Decisions
- The report does not create a 2020 global denominational table. Pew’s 2025 seven-category estimates do not include denomination-level counts, and subgroup sources use different years and scopes.
- For Hinduism, the report does not present global shares for Vaishnavism, Shaivism, or Shaktism. Pew’s earlier global landscape material notes that reliable subgroup estimates are not available in most countries.
- For Buddhism, the report describes Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana by country concentration rather than giving a 2020 branch table. Most censuses do not measure Buddhist branch affiliation.
- Jewish denominations are limited to the U.S. Pew survey example. Israel uses a different religiousity framework, and the two cannot be combined into a world denominational table.
- Smaller religions are handled through both Pew’s combined “other religions” country table and named counts that can be verified from India 2011 census-linked releases.
- The Judaism-evangelical connection is limited to explaining the U.S. pro-Israel political coalition. The report does not treat Jews worldwide, U.S. Jews, the state of Israel, the Israeli government, and White evangelicals as one ideological bloc.
- Views of Palestine are separated into views of Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and the Israeli government’s military conduct. Sympathy for Palestinians is not treated as support for the PA or Hamas.
Weak Points
- The Pew 2025 country-ranking figures were extracted from the report PDF appendix. If Pew updates a machine-readable dataset, these values should be cross-checked again.
- “Other religions” means different things by country. China, Taiwan, Japan, Brazil, and South Sudan should not be read as having the same internal composition.
- Religiously unaffiliated does not mean atheist or anti-religious. In East Asia especially, unaffiliated identity can coexist with ritual practice.
- Denominational and branch data do not share the 2020 baseline. The article labels them as older guides, U.S. examples, or India counts.
- Israel-Palestine opinion moves quickly with war, ceasefire talks, leadership changes, and civilian harm. The article uses Pew and PRRI data from 2024 to 2026, but any claim about current opinion should be rechecked.