Major world religions have been distinguished from minor religions using a variety of methods, though any such division naturally reflects a particular bias, since many adherent of a religion are likely to consider their own faith "major". Two methods are mentioned in this article, number of adherents and the definitions used by classical scholars of religions. Religion, sometimes used interchangeably with faith, is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the practices and institutions associated with such belief. ...

For a list of all religions, please see the article List of religions. Religions, sects and denominations Note that the classification hereunder is only one of several possible. ...

Defined by population

One way to define a major religion is by the current number of current adherents. Population numbers by religion are computed by combination of census reports and population surveys (in countries where religion data is not collected in census, for example USA or France), but results can vary widely depending on the way questions are phrased, the definitions of religion used, and the bias of the agencies or organizations conducting the survey. Informal or unorganized religions are especially difficult to count. The word Usa has more than one meaning: U.S.A. - The United States of America Usa, Oita - A city in Japan This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

All religions or belief systems by number of adherents

This listing does not draw distinctions between organized religion, which has a single belief code and religious hierarchies, and informal religions, such as Chinese traditional religions, which are a mix of different informal religious ideas.

1. Christianity 2.1 billion
   • Roman Catholicism: 1.1 billion
   • Eastern Orthodoxy: 240 million
   • Protestantism: 350 million
   • Anglican: 84 million
   • Other Christians: 350 million
2. Islam 1.4 billion
   • Sunnism: 940 million
   • Shiism 120 million
3. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist 1.1 billion
4. Hinduism 900 million
5. Chinese traditional religion 394 million
   • Not a single organized religion, includes elements of Taoism, Confucianism, and traditional nonscriptural religious observance.
6. Buddhism 376 million
   • Mahayana: 185 million
   • Theravada: 124 million
7. Primal indigenous 300 million
   • Not a single organized religion, includes a wide range of primarily Asian traditional or tribal religions, including Shamanism and Paganism.
8. African Traditional and Diasporic 100 million
   • Not a single organized religion, this includes traditional African beliefs such as Yoruba as well as Diasporic beliefs such as Santeria and Vodoun.
9. Sikhism 23 million
10. Juche 19 million
    • Not considered a religion by adherents. Juche is the political ideology taught by North Korean communists; some have argued it constitutes a religion.
11. Spiritism 15 million
    • Not a single organized religion, includes a variety of beliefs including some forms of Umbanda.
12. Judaism 14 million
13. Bahá'í Faith 7 million
14. Jainism 4.2 million
15. Shinto 4 million
16. Cao Dai 4 million
17. Zoroastrianism 2.6 million
18. Tenrikyo 2 million
19. Neopaganism 1 million
20. Unitarian Universalism 800,000
21. Rastafarianism 600,000
    • Not an organized religion
22. Scientology 500,000

• Source of statistics: adherents.com  (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html), updated 2005. These statistics are based on analysis of a range of sources on religious populations, for more on the methodology, please see Adherent.com's explaination (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html#Specific).

The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. ... List of Christian denominations ordered by historical and doctrinal relationships. ... Islam ( Arabic al-islām الإسلام,  listen?) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith and the worlds second-largest religion. ... Sunni Islam (Arabic سنّة) is the largest denomination of Islam. ... Shiʻa Islam (Arabic شيعى follower; English has traditionally used Shiite) makes up the second largest sect of believers in Islam, constituting about 30%–35% of all Muslim. ... This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ... Agnosticism is the philosophical and theological view that the existence of God, gods or deities is either unknown or inherently unknowable. ... For information about the band, see Atheist (band). ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... Chinese traditional religion is the blend of religious practices most Han Chinese practiced for thousands of years. ... For other uses of the words tao and dao, see Dao (disambiguation). ... Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā The School of the Scholars), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius. ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... Relief image of the bodhisattva Guan Yin from Mt. ... Theravada (Pali; Sanskrit: Sthaviravada) is one of the eighteen (or twenty) Nikāya schools that formed early in the history of Buddhism. ... This article is on the social structure. ... Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices that involve the ability to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause human suffering because of a special relationship with, or control over, spirits. ... Paganism is a catch-all term which has come to bundle together (by extension from its original classical meaning of a pre-Christian religion) a very broad set of not necessarily compatible religious beliefs and practices that are usually, but not necessarily, characterized by polytheism and, less commonly, animism. ... This article is about dispersion of peoples. ... The Yorùbá are the largest ethnic group in Nigeria, comprising approximately 26 percent of that countrys total population, and numbering about close to 100 million individuals throughout the region of West Africa. ... Lukumí or Regla de Ocha, most widely known as Santeria, is a set of related religious systems that fuse Catholic beliefs with traditional Yorùbá beliefs. ... The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based religious tradition with primary roots among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as... The Golden Temple is the most important sacred shrine for Sikhs Sikhism comes from the word Sikh, which means a strong and able disciple. ... Juche (pronounced Joo-cheh), also Kimilsungism, is the official government-sponsored ideology of North Korea. ... North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK; Korean: Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk; Hangul: 조선민주주의인민공화국; Hanja: 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國), is a country in eastern Asia, covering the northern half of the peninsula of Korea. ... Spiritism is a generic term for various beliefs that claim the existence of immortal souls that can somehow be communicated with and interact with the real world (often through channeling) even after death. ... Originating in Brazil in the 1920s, Umbanda is a religion that blends Catholicism, Kardecist Spiritualism and Afro-Brazilian traditions. ... For a discussion of Jews as an ethnicity or ethnic group see the article on Jew. ... Known in India as the Lotus Temple, the Bahai House of Worship attracts an average of three and a half million visitors a year. ... The hand with a wheel on the palm symbolizes the Jain Vow of Ahinsa, meaning non-injury and nonviolence. ... A torii at Itsukushima Shrine Shintō (Japanese: 神道) is the native religion of Japan. ... Cao Dai Temple Cao Dai (Cao Đài) is a religion founded in 1926 in Tay Ninh, southern Vietnam, by Ngo Van Chieu, an official in the French colonial government, who claimed to have received direct communications from God, ordering him to combine various religions, some from the East and some... The main Zoroastrian fire temple in Yazd, Iran. ... Tenrikyo Headquarter Tenrikyo (天理教; lit. ... Neopaganism (sometimes Neo-Paganism, meaning New Paganism) is a heterogeneous group of religions which attempt to revive ancient, mainly European pre-Christian religions. ... The flaming chalice is the universally recognized symbol for Unitarian Universalism. ... Rasta hairstyle Rastafarianism is a religious movement that believes in the divinity of former emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. ... Scientology is a system of beliefs and teachings, originally established as a secular philosophy in 1952 by author L. Ron Hubbard, and subsequently reoriented from 1953 as an applied religious philosophy. It is most prominently represented by the Church of Scientology. ...

Organized religions by population ranking

The Christian Science Monitor used a separate standard, examining only organized religions. The newspaper listed the following in 1998 as the "Top 10 Organized Religions in the World" based on descending level of population:

1. Christianity
2. Islam
3. Hinduism
4. Buddhism
5. Sikhism
6. Judaism
7. Bahá'í Faith
8. Confucianism
9. Jainism
10. Shintoism

Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā The School of the Scholars), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius. ...

Classically defined

Major religions have also been identified based on their importance, whether theological or temporal. The earliest Christian scholars, the first to define major religions, recognized only three religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism (which they considered to encompass every other religion). Views evolved during the enlightenment, however, and, by the 19th century, Western scholars considered the five major religions to be Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. As the exposure of Westerners to other religions increased, five other religions were added to the original five: Confucianism, Taoism, Jainism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism. Later, the Bahá'í Faith was added to this list, resulting in eleven classic religions:

• Bahá'í Faith
• Buddhism
• Christianity
• Confucianism
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Jainism
• Judaism
• Shinto
• Taoism
• Zoroastrianism

The standard modern definition of major religion comes from the classical definition, often expanding on "Christianity," and omitting Jainism and Zoroastrianism, like this list found in the New York Public Library Student Reference:

• Bahá'í Faith
• Buddhism
• Confucianism
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Judaism
• Orthodox Eastern Church
• Protestantism
• Catholicism
• Shinto
• Taoism

References

• A discussion on definitions of major religions (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html)
• BBC Listing of Major Religions (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/)

See also: Religions of the world. Religions, sects and denominations Note that the classification hereunder is only one of several possible. ...