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Data Insight: How many people in the world identify with a particular religion?
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Forwarded this email? Subscribe here. Religious compositions vary a lot from country to country. In my own country, the United Kingdom, Christianity is the most popular, and following no religion is becoming increasingly common, particularly among young people. But I struggle to get a sense of how these differences stack up globally. The Pew Research Center publishes estimates of religious affiliation across the world. You can see the global breakdown in the chart for 2020 (the most recent year available). It shows the number of people who identify with each religion. Pew counts people by the religion they report, regardless of their beliefs or practices. You can see that Christians are the largest group, with 2.3 billion people, followed by Muslims, with 2 billion. People with no religious affiliation come close behind. Those not affiliated with any religion are among the largest groups in the world. But this undersells religion’s reach: when we add up all religious groups, most people in the world — around three in four — identify with a religion. Those with no religious affiliation are still a minority. Explore more data on religious affiliation, practices, and changes over time in our topic page By Hannah Ritchie Browse our Data Insights Subscribe to The OWID Brief newsletter The OWID Brief keeps you up to date with our latest work and delivers curated highlights from across Our World in Data, twice a month. Subscribe to The OWID Brief The mission of Our World in Data is to make data and research on the world’s largest problems understandable and accessible. We are a nonprofit, building Our World in Data as a public good that’s freely available to everyone. Help us do more by supporting us with a donation. Donate now This email was sent to you@example.com. You received this email because you opted in at ourworldindata.org. You can update your subscription preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Our World in Data · Urbanoid Workspace Oxford · 1&3 Kings Meadow · Oxford, OX2 0DP · United Kingdom