ART AND CULTURE.

The world's most widespread religions

Assessing which are the major religions, i.e. the world's major religions, can be done by a variety of methods; in many cases, statements about the relative importance of a religion reflect a particular point of view (many adherents of a religion consider their own faith more influential or widespread than it actually is). Two methods are used in this entry: number of adherents and the definition used by scholars of religions.

For the relations between them, see the entries on religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue.

The number of adherents of each religion is calculated by a combination of censuses and surveys for countries where there is no religious classification in official censuses; results may vary widely depending on the way the survey questions are asked and the representative sample chosen. Informal and unorganised religions are the most difficult to analyse.

Freepik
The world's most widespread religions
Assessing which are the major religions, i.e., the world's major religions, can be done by a plurality of methods; in many cases, statements about the relative importance of a religion reflect a particular point of view (many adherents of a religion consider their faith to be more influential or widespread than it actually is). Two methods are used in this entry: number of adherents and definition used by scholars of religions. Source: Wikipedia
Di Wilfredor - Opera propria, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29307330
Buddhism
500 million followers. Buddhism is one of the world's oldest and most widespread religions. Originated from the teachings of the Indian itinerant ascetic Siddhārtha Gautama, commonly summarized in the doctrines founded on the four noble truths. Source: Wikipedia
Di Xue Siyang - Panoramio, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40684529
Traditional Chinese religion
754 million followers. Chinese traditional religion, or Chinese folk religion, or simply Chinese religion, is the ethnic religion of the Chinese Han. Being a native and spontaneous spirituality, it has no objectifying name in the folk tradition, but has been variously studied in intellectual circles since the early centuries as Shendao, and in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries under names such as Chinese Universism, Shenism and Shenxianism. Source: Wikipedia
Di Pjottermans di Wikipedia in inglese, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9
Hinduism
1.2 billion believers. Hinduism traditionally referred to as Sanātanadharma, is a religion, or rather a set of religious beliefs, among the most widespread in the world and among those with the oldest origins. Source: Wikipedia
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Islam
1.9 billion adherents.Islam is a universal Abrahamic monotheistic religion that manifested in the Arabian Peninsula, in the higiazene town of Mecca, in the 7th century. Muhammad is considered by Muslims to be the last law-bearing prophet, the "seal of the prophets," sent by Allah to the world to definitively reaffirm the revelation, first announced to Adam, the first man and the first prophet. Source: Wikipedia
Di Al Jazeera English - Al-Haram mosque, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?cur
Christianity
The most widely followed religious tradition in the world is Christianity with 2.4 billion adherents. Christianity is a religion with a monotheistic character, originating from Judaism in the first century, based on the revelation, that is, the coming and preaching, contained in the Gospels, of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is understood as the son of the God of Israel and therefore God himself, incarnate, dead and risen again for the salvation of humanity, i.e., the promised Messiah, the Christ. Source: Wikipedia
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