ABSTRACT
Among the thousands of religions in the world, relatively few have achieved the status of what we commonly dub “world religions,” including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. Actually, according to Barrett et al. (2001), there are nineteen world religions with up to 270 major subdivisions and many other smaller subgroups. The number of such religions will depend on how “world religion” is defined, and estimates of their memberships vary somewhat, but a typical tally tends to fall within the following parameters:
Christianity: 2.1 billion, or 33 percent of the world’s population Islam: 1.3 billion, or 21 percent Hinduism: 900 million, or 14 percent Chinese religions (Confucianism and Taoism): 394 million, or 6 percent Buddhism: 376 million, or 6 percent Sikhism: 23 million, or 0.36 percent Judaism: 14 million, or 0.22 percent Baha’i: 7 million, or 0.11 percent Jainism: 4.2 million, or 0.06 percent Shinto: 4 million, or 0.06 percent Cao Dai: 4 million, or 0.06 percent
(Source: <https://www.adherents.org>;)
Between these eleven religions, the vast majority of the world’s people (almost 81 percent) are accounted for.
