classification of religions
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Conclusion
The classification of religions that will withstand all criticism and serve all the purposes of a general science of religions has not been devised. Each classification presented above has been attacked for its inadequacies or distortions, yet each is useful in bringing to light certain aspects of religion. Even the crudest and most subjective classifications throw into relief various aspects of religious life and thus contribute to the cause of understanding. The most fruitful approach for a student of religion appears to be that of employing a number of diverse classifications, each one for the insight it may yield. Though each may have its shortcomings, each also offers a positive contribution to the store of knowledge and its systematization. The insistence upon the exclusive validity of any single taxonomic effort must be avoided. To confine oneself to a single determined framework of thought about so rich and variegated a subject as religion is to risk the danger of missing much that is important. Classification should be viewed as a method and a tool only.
Although a perfect classification lies at present beyond scholars’ grasp, certain criteria, both positive and negative in nature, may be suggested for building and judging classifications. First, classifications should not be arbitrary, subjective, or provincial. A first principle of the scientific method is that objectivity should be pursued to the extent possible and that findings should be capable of confirmation by other observers. Second, an acceptable classification should deal with the essential and typical in the religious life, not with the accidental and the unimportant. The contribution to understanding that a classification may make is in direct proportion to the penetration of the bases of religious life exhibited in its principles of division. A good classification must concern itself with the fundamentals of religion and with the most typical elements of the units it is seeking to order. Third, a proper classification should be capable of presenting both that which is common to religious forms of a given type and that which is peculiar or unique to each member of the type. Thus, no classification should ignore the concrete historical individuality of religious manifestations in favour of that which is common to them all, nor should it neglect to demonstrate the common factors that are the bases for the very distinction of types of religious experience, manifestations, and forms. Classification of religions involves both the systematic and the historical tasks of the general science of religion. Fourth, it is desirable in a classification that it demonstrate the dynamics of religious life both in the recognition that religions as living systems are constantly changing and in the effort to show, through the categories chosen, how it is possible for one religious form or manifestation to develop into another. Few errors have been more damaging to the understanding of religion than that of viewing religious systems as static and fixed, as, in effect, ahistorical. Adequate classifications should possess the flexibility to come to terms with the flexibility of religion itself. Fifth, a classification must define what exactly is to be classified. If the purpose is to develop types of religions as a whole, the questions of what constitutes a religion and what constitutes various individual religions must be asked. Since no historical manifestation of religion is known that has not exhibited an unvarying process of change, evolution, and development, these questions are far from easily solved. With such criteria in mind it should be possible continuously to construct classification schemes that illuminate humanity’s religious history.
Worldwide religious adherents
A list of worldwide religious adherents is provided in the table.
Mid–2013
| Africa | Asia | Europe | Latin America |
Northern America |
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| Religionists | 1,087,204,000 | 3,676,122,000 | 631,063,000 | 586,949,000 | 300,577,000 | |||
| Christians | 532,591,000 | 364,780,000 | 581,368,000 | 562,947,000 | 277,275,000 | |||
| Roman Catholics | 192,585,000 | 144,065,000 | 277,522,000 | 495,363,000 | 88,218,000 | |||
| Protestants | 203,136,000 | 91,977,000 | 93,932,000 | 62,052,000 | 62,085,000 | |||
| Independents | 115,303,000 | 143,285,000 | 14,940,000 | 53,003,000 | 71,260,000 | |||
| Orthodox | 45,945,000 | 18,710,000 | 204,339,000 | 1,087,000 | 7,697,000 | |||
| Muslims | 455,521,000 | 1,128,271,000 | 42,017,000 | 1,576,000 | 5,195,000 | |||
| Sunnis | 448,413,000 | 930,444,000 | 39,894,000 | 1,144,000 | 3,570,000 | |||
| Shiʿites | 2,792,000 | 189,071,000 | 2,076,000 | 420,000 | 1,018,000 | |||
| Hindus | 3,092,000 | 979,966,000 | 1,215,000 | 777,000 | 1,930,000 | |||
| Buddhists | 265,000 | 500,968,000 | 1,811,000 | 785,000 | 4,593,000 | |||
| Chinese folk-religionists | 140,000 | 434,478,000 | 449,000 | 196,000 | 806,000 | |||
| Ethnoreligionists | 92,758,000 | 149,391,000 | 1,171,000 | 3,724,000 | 1,235,000 | |||
| New religionists | 208,000 | 59,601,000 | 644,000 | 1,912,000 | 2,442,000 | |||
| Sikhs | 78,700 | 23,807,000 | 579,000 | 7,300 | 626,000 | |||
| Spiritists | 3,000 | 2,000 | 145,000 | 13,638,000 | 252,000 | |||
| Jews | 119,000 | 6,288,000 | 1,460,000 | 436,000 | 5,439,000 | |||
| Daoists (Taoists) | 0 | 8,622,200 | 0 | 0 | 12,600 | |||
| Confucianists | 20,600 | 8,156,000 | 15,900 | 500 | 0 | |||
| Bahaʾis | 2,306,000 | 3,552,000 | 162,000 | 941,000 | 583,000 | |||
| Jains | 101,000 | 5,375,800 | 19,600 | 1,500 | 104,000 | |||
| Shintoists | 0 | 2,699,000 | 0 | 8,000 | 64,000 | |||
| Zoroastrians | 1,000 | 165,300 | 5,800 | 0 | 21,300 | |||
| Nonreligionists | 7,533,000 | 616,694,000 | 109,814,000 | 22,737,000 | 53,043,000 | |||
| Agnostics | 6,933,000 | 502,047,000 | 94,587,000 | 19,698,000 | 50,779,000 | |||
| Atheists | 600,000 | 114,647,000 | 15,227,000 | 3,039,000 | 2,264,000 | |||
| Total population | 1,094,737,000 | 4,292,816,000 | 740,877,000 | 609,686,000 | 353,620,000 | |||
| Oceania | World | % | Change Rate (%) |
Number of Countries |
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| Religionists | 30,937,000 | 6,312,852,000 | 88.5 | 1.31 | 232 | |||
| Christians | 28,210,000 | 2,347,171,000 | 32.9 | 1.28 | 232 | |||
| Roman Catholics | 9,237,000 | 1,206,990,000 | 16.9 | 1.34 | 232 | |||
| Protestants | 12,838,000 | 526,020,000 | 7.4 | 1.53 | 229 | |||
| Independents | 2,002,000 | 399,793,000 | 5.6 | 2.07 | 229 | |||
| Orthodox | 1,029,000 | 278,807,000 | 3.9 | 0.41 | 137 | |||
| Muslims | 593,000 | 1,633,173,000 | 22.9 | 1.82 | 213 | |||
| Sunnis | 489,000 | 1,423,954,000 | 20.0 | 1.87 | 211 | |||
| Shiʿites | 99,000 | 195,476,000 | 2.7 | 1.80 | 147 | |||
| Hindus | 533,000 | 987,513,000 | 13.9 | 1.31 | 144 | |||
| Buddhists | 624,000 | 509,046,000 | 7.1 | 0.98 | 152 | |||
| Chinese folk-religionists | 110,000 | 436,179,000 | 6.1 | 0.29 | 120 | |||
| Ethnoreligionists | 386,000 | 248,665,000 | 3.5 | 0.99 | 146 | |||
| New religionists | 122,000 | 64,929,000 | 0.9 | 0.25 | 119 | |||
| Sikhs | 52,000 | 25,150,000 | 0.4 | 1.51 | 64 | |||
| Spiritists | 8,000 | 14,048,000 | 0.2 | 0.85 | 57 | |||
| Jews | 120,000 | 13,862,000 | 0.2 | 0.57 | 146 | |||
| Daoists (Taoists) | 4,200 | 8,639,000 | 0.1 | 0.67 | 6 | |||
| Confucianists | 52,000 | 8,245,000 | 0.1 | 0.39 | 17 | |||
| Bahaʾis | 118,000 | 7,662,000 | 0.1 | 1.50 | 222 | |||
| Jains | 3,100 | 5,605,000 | 0.1 | 1.50 | 19 | |||
| Shintoists | 0 | 2,771,000 | 0.0 | 0.09 | 8 | |||
| Zoroastrians | 2,600 | 196,000 | 0.0 | 0.62 | 27 | |||
| Nonreligionists | 7,340,000 | 817,161,000 | 11.5 | 0.25 | 231 | |||
| Agnostics | 6,804,000 | 680,848,000 | 9.5 | 0.32 | 231 | |||
| Atheists | 536,000 | 136,313,000 | 1.9 | −0.07 | 221 | |||
| Total population | 38,277,000 | 7,130,014,000 | 100.0 | 1.17 | 232 | |||
| Methodology. As defined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a person’s religion is what he or she professes, confesses, or states that it is. Totals are enumerated for each of the world’s 232 countries, using recent censuses, polls, surveys, yearbooks, reports, Web sites, literature, and other data. See the World Christian Database (www.worldchristiandatabase.org), the World Religion Database (www.worldreligiondatabase.org), and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (www.pewforum.org) for more detail. Religions are ranked in order of worldwide size as of mid-2013. | ||||||||
| Continents. These follow current UN demographic terminology, which divides the world into the six major areas shown above. See United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision (New York: UN, 2011), with populations of all continents, regions, and countries covering the period 1950−2100, with 100 variables for every country each year. | ||||||||
| Change rate. This column documents the annual change in 2013 (projected from an average annual change from 2000 to 2010) in worldwide religious and nonreligious adherents. Note that the annual growth of the world’s population was 1.17%, or a net increase of 77,848,000 persons per year.. | ||||||||
| Countries. The last column enumerates sovereign and nonsovereign countries in which each religion or religious grouping has a numerically significant and organized following. | ||||||||
| Agnostics. Persons professing no religion (unaffiliated), nonbelievers, freethinkers, uninterested, or dereligionized secularists indifferent to all religion (but who are not atheists). Together with atheists, the nonreligious number 818 million, or 11.5% of the world’s population (continuing to decline from a high of 20% in 1970). | ||||||||
| Atheists. Persons professing atheism, skepticism, disbelief, or irreligion, including the militantly antireligious (opposed to all religion). While recent books have outlined the Western philosophical and scientific basis for atheism, the vast majority of atheists today are found in Asia (primarily Chinese communists). | ||||||||
| Buddhists. Adherents of Buddhism. 56% Mahayana, 38% Theravada (Hinayana), 6% Tantrayana (Lamaism, Tibetan). | ||||||||
| Chinese folk-religionists. Followers of a unique complex of beliefs and practices that may include universism (yin/yang cosmology with dualities earth/heaven, evil/good, darkness/light), ancestor cult, Confucian ethics, divination, festivals, folk religion, goddess worship, household gods, local deities, mediums, metaphysics, monasteries, neo-Confucianism, popular religion, sacrifices, shamans, spirit-writing, and Daoist (Taoist) and Buddhist elements. | ||||||||
| Christians. Followers of Jesus Christ normally affiliated with churches (church members, with names written on church rolls, usually total number of baptized persons, including children baptized, dedicated, or undedicated), shown above divided among four major church traditions. Independents. This term denotes members of Christian churches and networks that regard themselves as independent of historical, mainstream, organized, institutionalized, confessional, and denominationalist Christianity. It also includes members of denominations who define themselves as Christians but differ significantly from organized mainstream Christianity (e.g., Unitarians, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses). Protestants. Includes Anglicans. | ||||||||
| Confucianists. Chinese and non-Chinese followers of Confucius and Confucianism, mostly neo-Confucianists in East and Southeast Asia and Korean Confucianists in Korea. | ||||||||
| Ethnoreligionists. Followers of local, tribal, animistic, or shamanistic religions, with members restricted to one ethnic group. | ||||||||
| Hindus. Adherents of Hinduism. 68% Vaishnavites, 27% Shaivites, 5% Saktists and neo-Hindus and reform Hindus. | ||||||||
| Jews. Adherents of Judaism. For detailed data on "core" Jewish population, see the annual "World Jewish Population, 2012" article in the American Jewish Committee’s American Jewish Year Book (Dordrecht: Springer, 2013). | ||||||||
| Muslims. Adherents of Islam. 87% Sunnis, 12% Shiʿites, 1% other schools. | ||||||||
| New religionists. Followers of Asian 20th-century neoreligions, neoreligious movements, radical new crisis religions, and syncretistic mass religions. Also includes other religionists (from previous reports), including quasi-religions, pseudoreligions, parareligions, religious or mystic systems, and religious and semireligious brotherhoods of numerous varieties. | ||||||||
| Total population. UN medium variant figures for mid-2013, as provided in World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision. | ||||||||
Religious adherents in the United States
A list of religious adherents in the United States is provided in the table.
| 1900 | % | mid-1970 | % | mid-1990 | % | mid-2000 | % | |||||
| Religionists | 74,994,000 | 98.7 | 198,994,000 | 95.0 | 231,127,000 | 91.2 | 249,873,000 | 88.5 | ||||
| Christians | 73,260,000 | 96.4 | 189,873,000 | 90.6 | 216,161,600 | 85.3 | 231,989,200 | 82.1 | ||||
| Roman Catholics | 10,775,000 | 14.2 | 48,305,000 | 23.1 | 56,500,000 | 22.3 | 62,970,000 | 22.3 | ||||
| Independents | 6,650,000 | 8.8 | 39,768,000 | 19.0 | 51,340,000 | 20.3 | 62,816,000 | 22.2 | ||||
| Protestants | 36,600,000 | 48.2 | 60,382,000 | 28.8 | 62,666,000 | 24.7 | 59,221,000 | 21.0 | ||||
| Orthodox | 400,000 | 0.5 | 4,395,000 | 2.1 | 5,150,000 | 2.0 | 5,595,000 | 2.0 | ||||
| Jews | 1,500,000 | 2.0 | 6,700,000 | 3.2 | 5,535,000 | 2.2 | 5,341,000 | 1.9 | ||||
| Muslims | 10,000 | 0.0 | 800,000 | 0.4 | 3,300,000 | 1.3 | 3,722,000 | 1.3 | ||||
| Sunnis | 6,500 | 0.0 | 520,000 | 0.2 | 2,145,000 | 0.8 | 2,423,000 | 0.9 | ||||
| Shiʿites | 2,000 | 0.0 | 160,000 | 0.1 | 660,000 | 0.3 | 768,000 | 0.3 | ||||
| Buddhists | 30,000 | 0.0 | 200,000 | 0.1 | 1,880,000 | 0.7 | 3,456,000 | 1.2 | ||||
| New religionists | 20,000 | 0.0 | 1,010,000 | 0.5 | 1,685,000 | 0.7 | 2,055,000 | 0.7 | ||||
| Hindus | 1,000 | 0.0 | 100,000 | 0.0 | 750,000 | 0.3 | 1,222,000 | 0.4 | ||||
| Ethnoreligionists | 100,000 | 0.1 | 70,000 | 0.0 | 780,000 | 0.3 | 970,000 | 0.3 | ||||
| Bahaʾis | 3,000 | 0.0 | 138,000 | 0.1 | 600,000 | 0.2 | 431,000 | 0.2 | ||||
| Sikhs | 0 | 0.0 | 10,000 | 0.0 | 160,000 | 0.1 | 237,000 | 0.1 | ||||
| Spiritists | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 120,000 | 0.0 | 193,000 | 0.1 | ||||
| Chinese folk-religionists | 70,000 | 0.1 | 90,000 | 0.0 | 76,000 | 0.0 | 98,900 | 0.0 | ||||
| Jains | 0 | 0.0 | 3,000 | 0.0 | 5,000 | 0.0 | 73,400 | 0.0 | ||||
| Shintoists | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 50,000 | 0.0 | 57,100 | 0.0 | ||||
| Zoroastrians | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 14,400 | 0.0 | 16,100 | 0.0 | ||||
| Daoists (Taoists) | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 10,000 | 0.0 | 11,300 | 0.0 | ||||
| Nonreligionists | 1,001,000 | 1.3 | 10,470,000 | 5.0 | 22,212,000 | 8.8 | 32,623,000 | 11.5 | ||||
| Agnostics | 1,000,000 | 1.3 | 10,270,000 | 4.9 | 21,442,000 | 8.5 | 31,467,000 | 11.1 | ||||
| Atheists | 1,000 | 0.0 | 200,000 | 0.1 | 770,000 | 0.3 | 1,156,000 | 0.4 | ||||
| U.S. population | 75,995,000 | 100.0 | 209,464,000 | 100.0 | 253,339,000 | 100.0 | 282,496,000 | 100.0 | ||||
| Annual Change, 2000–2010 | ||||||||||||
| mid-2010 | % | Natural | Conversion | Total | Rate (%) | |||||||
| Religionists | 267,185,000 | 86.1 | 2,466,700 | −735,500 | 1,731,200 | 0.67 | ||||||
| Christians | 247,943,900 | 79.9 | 2,290,200 | −694,700 | 1,595,500 | 0.67 | ||||||
| Roman Catholics | 70,656,000 | 22.8 | 621,600 | 147,000 | 768,600 | 1.16 | ||||||
| Independents | 68,150,000 | 22.0 | 620,100 | −86,700 | 533,400 | 0.82 | ||||||
| Protestants | 58,200,000 | 18.8 | 584,600 | −686,700 | −102,100 | −0.17 | ||||||
| Orthodox | 6,386,000 | 2.1 | 55,200 | 23,900 | 79,100 | 1.33 | ||||||
| Jews | 5,122,000 | 1.7 | 52,700 | −74,600 | −21,900 | −0.42 | ||||||
| Muslims | 4,106,000 | 1.3 | 36,700 | 1,700 | 38,400 | 0.99 | ||||||
| Sunnis | 2,662,000 | 0.9 | 22,900 | 1,000 | 23,900 | 0.95 | ||||||
| Shiʿites | 873,000 | 0.3 | 10,000 | 500 | 10,500 | 1.29 | ||||||
| Buddhists | 3,955,000 | 1.3 | 34,100 | 15,800 | 49,900 | 1.36 | ||||||
| New religionists | 2,224,000 | 0.7 | 20,300 | −3,400 | 16,900 | 0.79 | ||||||
| Hindus | 1,445,000 | 0.5 | 12,100 | 10,200 | 22,300 | 1.69 | ||||||
| Ethnoreligionists | 1,085,000 | 0.3 | 9,600 | 1,900 | 11,500 | 1.13 | ||||||
| Bahaʾis | 513,000 | 0.2 | 4,300 | 3,900 | 8,200 | 1.76 | ||||||
| Sikhs | 279,000 | 0.1 | 2,300 | 1,900 | 4,200 | 1.64 | ||||||
| Spiritists | 225,000 | 0.1 | 1,900 | 1,300 | 3,200 | 1.55 | ||||||
| Chinese folk-religionists | 109,000 | 0.0 | 1,000 | 0 | 1,000 | 0.98 | ||||||
| Jains | 85,400 | 0.0 | 700 | 500 | 1,200 | 1.53 | ||||||
| Shintoists | 62,700 | 0.0 | 600 | 0 | 600 | 0.94 | ||||||
| Zoroastrians | 17,600 | 0.0 | 200 | 0 | 200 | 0.89 | ||||||
| Daoists (Taoists) | 12,400 | 0.0 | 100 | 0 | 100 | 0.93 | ||||||
| Nonreligionists | 43,199,000 | 13.9 | 322,100 | 735,500 | 1,057,600 | 2.85 | ||||||
| Agnostics | 41,889,000 | 13.5 | 310,600 | 731,600 | 1,042,200 | 2.90 | ||||||
| Atheists | 1,310,000 | 0.4 | 11,400 | 4,000 | 15,400 | 1.26 | ||||||
| U.S. population | 310,384,000 | 100.0 | 2,789,000 | 0 | 2,789,000 | 0.95 | ||||||
| Methodology. This table extracts and analyzes a microcosm of the world religion table. It depicts the United States with estimates at five points in time from 1900 to 2010. Each religion’s Annual Change for 2000–2010 is also analyzed by Natural increase (births minus deaths, plus immigrants minus emigrants) per year and Conversion increase (converts in minus converts out) per year, which together constitute the Total increase per year. Rate increase is then computed as percentage per year. | ||||||||||||
| Structure. Vertically the table lists major religious categories. The major categories (including nonreligious) in the U.S. are listed with the largest (Christians) first. Indented names of groups in the "Adherents" column are subcategories of the groups above them and are also counted in these unindented totals, so they should not be added twice into the column total. Because of rounding, the corresponding percentage figures sometimes might not total exactly to 100%. Religions are ranked in order of size in 2010. | ||||||||||||
| Agnostics and atheists (See world table for definitions.) Together (termed "nonreligionists") in 2010 these number 43.2 million, or 13.9% of the total population. This is markedly higher than the 1970 figure of 10.4 million (5%). Note that these figures are lower than survey results for the "unaffiliated" or "nones," which include large numbers of religionists who are indifferent to or dislike organized religion. | ||||||||||||
| Christians. Followers of Jesus Christ normally affiliated with churches. (See also the note on Christians below the world religion table.) The indented lines under "Christians" are ranked by size in 2010 for each of the four major church traditions (Independent, Orthodox, Protestant, Roman Catholic). Two important subcategories of Christians (potentially from all four traditions) are Evangelicals and Pentecostals. Evangelicals are mainly Protestant churches, agencies, and individuals who call themselves by this term (for example, members of the National Association of Evangelicals); these numbered approximately 45 million in mid-2010. Pentecostals include classical Pentecostals (such as Assemblies of God), Charismatics (in mainline churches), and Independent Charismatics (such as African Instituted Churches). Together these numbered approximately 66 million in 2010. There is some overlap between Evangelicals and Pentecostals. | ||||||||||||
| Jews. Core Jewish population relating to Judaism, excluding ethnically Jewish persons professing a different religion or no religion. | ||||||||||||
| Muslims. 65% Sunnis, 21% Shiʿites (mainly Iranian immigrants), 14% other schools (including many Black Muslims). | ||||||||||||
| Other categories. Definitions are as given under the world religion table. | ||||||||||||
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