Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2023).
| Religion | Definition |
|---|---|
| Baha'is | Followers of the Baha’i World Faith, founded in 1844 by Baha’u’llah in what is now Iran. |
| Buddhists | Followers of the Buddha, mostly across Asia, including three main traditions: (a) Mahayana (Greater Vehicle); (b) Theravada (Teaching of the Elders); (c) Tibetan (Lamaists); plus (d) traditional Buddhist sects, but excluding neo-Buddhist new religions or religious movements. |
| Chinese folk-religionists | Followers of indigenous religions of China, representing an amalgamation of beliefs and practices that can include: universism (yin/yang cosmology with dualities earth/heaven, evil/good, darkness/light), worship of ancestors/gods/goddesses/spirits, divination, sacrifices, and elements from Taoism, Confucianism, neo-Confucianism, and/or Buddhism. |
| Christians | Followers of Jesus Christ, including: (a) Catholics; (b) Protestants; (c) Orthodox; (d) Independents; and (e) unaffiliated. |
| – unaffiliated Christians | Persons professing allegiance and commitment to Christ but who have no church affiliation. |
| – Orthodox | In 4 traditions: Eastern (Chalcedonian), Oriental (Pre-Chalcedonian, Non-Chalcedonian, Monophysite), Assyrian Church of the East (Nestorian), and non-historical Orthodox. |
| – Catholics | All Christians in communion with the Church of Rome, also known as Roman Catholics. Affiliated Catholics are defined here as baptized Catholics plus catechumens. |
| – Protestants | Christians in churches originating in, or reformulated at the time of, or in communion with, the Western world’s 16th-century Protestant Reformation in European languages usually called Evangéliques (French), Evangelische (German), Evangélicos (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish), though not usually Evangelicals (in English). |
| – Independents | Christians who identify as independent of the major Christian traditions (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant). Independent of historic, organised, institutionalized and denominationalist Christianity. |
| – doubly-affiliated Christians | Persons who are baptized members of 2 or more denominations at the same time. |
| – Movements | A cover term for groups within Christianity that overlap the major traditions (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and Independent) and are therefore counted separately. The largest are the Evangelical and the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements. |
| – Evangelicals | Churches, denominations, and individuals who identify themselves as evangelicals by membership in denominations linked to evangelical alliances (e.g., World Evangelical Alliance) or by self-identification in polls. |
| – Pentecostals/Charismatics | Shorthand term for Pentecostal/Charismatic/Independent Charismatic. |
| Confucianists | Non-Chinese followers of the teachings of Confucius and Confucianism. Sometimes spelt Confucians. |
| Daoists | Followers of the philosophical, ethical, and religious traditions of China, sometimes regarded as part of Chinese folk-religion. Also spelt Taoists. |
| ethnic religionists | Followers of local religions tied closely to specific ethnic groups, typically in Africa, with membership restricted to those groups; sometimes termed animists, polytheists, or shamanists. Older terminology: pagans, heathens, tribal religionists, traditional religionists. |
| Hindus | Followers of the main Hindu traditions: Vaishnavism; Shaivism; Shaktism; neo-Hindu movements and modern sects; and other Hindu reform movements. |
| Jains | Followers of the two Jain traditions, Svetambara and Digambara; originating in India as a reform movement from Hinduism in the 5th or 6th century BCE. |
| Jews | Followers of the various schools of Judaism: in the United States: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform; in Israel: Haredi, Orthodox, Traditional, Observant, and secular; ethnically, Ashkenazi (Eastern Europe), Mizrahi (Middle Eastern), Sephardic (Iberian Peninsula), and various African ethnicities. |
| Muslims | Followers of Islam, in two primary branches: (a) Sunni; and (b) Shia. Other, significantly smaller, branches include Kharijite, Sanusi, Mahdiya, Ahmadiya, Druzes, and Sabbateans. |
| New religionists | Followers of the so-called New Religions of Asia, mostly founded after 1945. Mainly Hindu or Buddhist sects/offshoots, or new syncretistic religions combining Christianity with Eastern religions. Sometimes termed Neoreligionists. |
| Shintoists | Followers of the indigenous religion of Japan, a collective of native beliefs and mythology dating back to 660 BCE and includes worship at public shrines in devotion to a number of gods. |
| Sikhs | Followers of the Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak in the 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Traditions include Akali, Khalsa, Nanapanthi, Nirmali, Sewapanthi, and Udasi. |
| Spiritists | Non-Christian spiritists or spiritualists, or thaumaturgicalists; high spiritists, as opposed to low spiritists (Afro-American syncretists), followers of medium-religions, medium-religionists. |
| Zoroastrians | Followers of a religion founded in Persia in 1200 BCE by the prophet Zoroaster, teaching the worship of Ahura Mazda; mainly in India (where they are known as Parsis) and Iran. |
| agnostics | Persons who claim no religion or claim that it is not possible to know if God, gods, or the supernatural exist. |
| atheists | Persons who deny the existence of God, gods, or the supernatural. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.