In countries like the U.S. with diverse populations, the religious affiliations of citizens tend to be more varied as well. However, in some countries, one religion clearly dominates, which influences the culture of the country. Overall, you can find most members of the world's major religions in only a few countries.
Pew Research Center has found that some of the most popular religions in the world are heavily concentrated in one or two countries. While studying the demographics of eight religious groups, which includes Buddhism, Christianity, folk religions, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and followers of other religions and those who don't adhere to a religion, for several years, Pew has found that in many cases, half or more of a religion's followers live in only a few countries.
The world's most popular religions, Christianity and Islam, have spread more throughout the world, but they are still heavily concentrated in a few countries. Six countries (Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Egypt) are home to 53 percent of all Muslims and 30 percent of the world's population. Most Christians can be found in 11 countries (the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, the Philippines, Nigeria, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Germany, Ethiopia and Italy). About half of the world's 2.2 billion Christians live in these nations, which comprises 38 percent of the world's population.
Only one country, China, is home to 62 percent of the unaffiliated population, which comes out to more than 700 million people, which is half of the total population of the country at 1.4 billion. However, half of the world's 488 million Buddhists and 73 percent of the followers of folk religions also live in China.
Hinduism dominates India, which is home to 94 percent of the 1 billion Hindus of the world.
Judaism is a religion concentrated in two countries, the United States and Israel. About 40 percent of followers, or about 14 million people, live in these nations.
The other religions of the world are also focused in only two countries, China and India. These religions include the Baha'i faith, Taoism, Jainism and Sikhism, among many others.
Pew also recently found that half of the world's 7.2 billion people live in only six countries: China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan.
Seeing how spread out and contained the world's religions are, it's not surprising that religion has been a factor in much of the conflict of the world. But hopefully, learning about data like this will help change that.
