The website Adherents.com compiled a census of all faiths in the world and counted their believers.
Avi Blizovsky
Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/religions1.html
The website Adherents.com compiled a census of all faiths in the world and counted their believers.
And the full list. Judaism is in 12th place with 14 million members in 2002. There is a difference between members and believers, if we take the number of those who define themselves as secular or atheists in Israel, it seems that a significant portion of those who are considered Jews are only so in terms of their culture and not their faith, or more precisely the unbelief within them.
1. Christianity - 2 billion
2. Islam 1.3 billion
3. Hinduism 900 million
4. Secular/non-religious/agnostic/atheists – 850 million
5. Buddhism - 360 million
6. Traditional Chinese religion - 225 million
7. Religions of children 150 million
8. African religions and religions that came out of Africa - 95 million
9. Sikkim - 23 million
10. Juche – 19 million
11. Spiritualism 14 million
12. Jews 14 million
13. Baha'is 6 million
14. Jainism (ancient Indian religion) 6 million
15. Shinto 4 million
16. Cao Dai (Taoist religion) – 3 million
17. The Religion of Divine Truth from Japan (Tenrikyo) 2.4 million
18. Neo-paganism – 1 million
19. Unitarian-universalism - 800 thousand
20. Radarianism - 700 thousand
21. Scientology - 600 thousand
22. Zoroastrianism - 150 thousand
The countries with the largest concentration of atheist population
The data are from 1991 - in percentages
The parts that were once East Germany 88.2 percent
Slovenia 29.8 percent
Russia 27.3 percent
Israel 25.6 percent
Netherlands 24.1 percent
Hungary 23.3 percent
Norway 14.9 percent
Britain 14 percent
The areas that were West Germany 12.1 percent
New Zealand 11.5 percent
These data are based on surveys that clarified questions regarding faith. Of course, this causes an overlap between people who identify themselves with an established religion but whose views allow them to define themselves as atheists.
Public opinion polls are sometimes the only way to locate the number of atheists in many areas because atheists by definition do not definitely belong to certain associations. Statistics issued by the communist authorities in the countries they ruled were not usually based on empirical tests or on a statistical basis.
The data includes a soft atheist core (does not believe in God but believes in life after death), and also atheists from the hard core (does not believe in God and does not believe in life after death) but does not include agnostics (there may be God, there may be life after death).
Agnosticism and atheism are concepts that have different meanings. Based on the survey questions, soft core atheists fall under the conventional definition of agnostics.
Note: The communist countries China, Cuba and North Korea are not included in the study. These countries may or may not be included in the list of the ten most atheistic countries in the world. Sociologically, communism is a religion like the established religions (Christianity and Islam) for example. Although the dominant belief in them can be considered atheistic. Therefore, even if the people define themselves as atheists and communists, they cannot be considered secular or "non-religious" in the sociological sense.
Source: The 1991 International Sociological Survey of Religions, as reported in "The Demand for Religion: Hard Core Atheism and 'Supply Side' Theory" by Wolfgang Jagodjaniski of the University of Cologne and Andrew Greeley of the Universities of Chicago and Arizona.
