Many are of the opinion that the concept of religion is of the past, one that is dying and is going to fade away in about a decade. Still, 84% of people all over the world identify with one religion or another at the moment.
Unlike most would also assume, many people in this category are generally younger and bear more children than the 16% that have no relation to religions at all. Hence, the shocking fact is that people are becoming even more religious. What is more, it has the potential to become even more widely accepted in the future.
Most Prominent Religions Today
A 2015 analysis by the Pew Research Center found that among all religious groups Christianity formed the largest religious body, taking up approximately 31% of the population. The trend toward the dominance of this group continues to this day. The Roman Catholic is the biggest Christian subdivision as they take up about half the 31% of Christians. Other Christian subdivisions include the Eastern, Greek Orthodox, and Protestants.
Closely after Christianity comes Islam, having almost 2 billion Muslims (this is about 24% of the Earth’s total population). And the most popular Muslim subdivision is the Sunni, then the Shia. Ibadi, Sufi, and Ahmadiyya are among the less popular denominations of Islam.
Hinduism is the third most prominent religion today, with about 15% of the population practicing it in four main subdivisions. Buddhism comes next as the fourth practiced type of religion. Finally, the Chinese traditional religion goes right after it.
How Geography Is Related To Religion
A study has found that geography is a very important factor when religion is being discussed. In most situations, a person’s geography determines what religion the person chooses to practice to a large extent. There are also some regions with a very high level of religiosity, and, on the contrary, some areas are not religious at all. Hence, both concepts can never be fully discussed separately.
As mentioned earlier, the Asia Pacific is the world’s most populated region. It is also in this region that the highest level of religiosity is noted. The Asia-Pacific is home to almost all the people practicing Hinduism, Buddhism, and even the traditional religion, three of the world’s top five most common kinds of religion.
Surprisingly, the Asia-Pacific area hosts a good majority of people without any religious affiliations as well. Study shows that people in this category make up about 15% of population, which is approximately 1.2 billion. Of this number, about 700 million are Chinese.
Statistics show that many religious people live in parts where they are considered a majority. Most practicing religions, like Hinduism especially, make up a good majority of the areas they are based in. Most Hindus can be found in such countries as India and Nepal. There are countries like Iran, Pakistan, and many more that majorly practice Islam.
However, the Buddhists are the only major group considered a minority in their geographical areas. Only 28% of Buddhists live in such countries as Sri Lanka and Thailand, where they are considered a majority group.
Trends In The Religions Development On A Global Scale
A decline in religion has been noted in some regions: these are North America and some Western areas of Europe. However, religion is of rising popularity in other parts, especially if talk about the most populated areas worldwide.
Though Christianity is still the largest religion in the world, Islam has been on a tremendous rise in different parts of the world. Based on the Pew Research Center’s review, Islam’s growth rate is almost twice the rate of the world’s entire population. At this rate, it is expected that the number of Muslims will probably surpass that of Christianity in the next few decades.
Several reasons can be attributed to the growth of Islam. The first and major reason is due to the demographics. It was found that the people currently practicing Islam have more children if compare to every major religious body. Also, Muslims have the youngest age of all religions, an age where many of them are just set to begin their childbearing stage. Will the trend toward an increase in the popularity of religions continue in the coming decades? Most likely, yes, because religion was, is, and will be an integral part of people’s lives. Numerous studies prove this statement.