Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents

Christianity: 2.1 billion  Islam: 1.3 billion  Secular/Nonreligious: 1.1 billion  Hinduism: 900 million  Chinese Traditional: 394 million  Buddhism: 376 million  Primal-Indigenous: 300 million  African Traditional: 100 million  Sikhism: 23 million  Juche: 19 million  Spiritism: 15 million  Baha’i: 7 million  Jainism: 4.2 million  Shinto: 4 million  Cao Dai: 4 million  Zoroastriansim: 2.6 million  Tenrikyo: 2 million  Neo-Paganism: 1 million  Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand  Rastafarianism: 600 thousand  Scientology 500 thousand. * Source: http://www.adherents.com.  

Proportion of World Population Adhering to Major Religious Traditions 

Year    
1900 1970 1980 1985 2000
Religion
         
West Christian  
26.9  30.6  30.0 29.7 29.9
Orthodox Christian
7.5 3.1  2.8  2.7 2.4
Muslim
12.4  15.3 16.5  17.1 19.2
Nonreligious
0.2 15.0 16.4 16.9 17.1
Hindu  
12.5 12.8 13.3  13.5 13.7
Buddhist    
7.8  6.4 6.3  6.2 5.7
Chinese Folk
23.5 5.9 4.5 3.9 2.5
Tribal  
6.6 2.4 2.1 1.9 1.6
Atheist
0.0 4.6  4.5  4.4  4.2

* Source: David B. Barrett, ed. World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative study of churches and religions in the modern world A.D. 1900-2000 (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1982). The world religions listing is derived from the statistics data in the Adherents database. The list was created in consultation with university professors of comparative religions and scholars from different religions. The Adherents.com collection now has over 43,000 adherent statistic citations for over 4,300 different faith groups, covering all countries of the world. This is not an absolutely exhaustive compilation of all such date, but it is by far the largest compilation available on the Internet. Subgroups within these religions (such as Catholics, Protestants, Wiccans, Shiites, etc.) are available at: http://www.Adherents.com.