28 November 2014
Religion around the world
Religious beliefs in Europe
51% of EU citizens believe there is a God and over one in four (26%) believe there is some sort of spirit or life force. Only 20% said that they didn't believe that is any sort of spirit, God or life force.
Source Eurobarometer report Biotechnology 2010 (chapter 5.3) http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_341_en.pdf
Religions in Europe
| Religion | Percentage of the population |
| Christian | 71.34% |
| Non religious | 21.45% |
| Muslim | 6.07% |
| Buddhist | 0.35% |
| Jew | 0.29% |
| Other | 0.19% |
| Hindu | 0.14% |
| Ethnoreligionist | 0.08% |
| Sikh | 0.07% |
| Baha’i | 0.01% |
| Chinese | 0.01% |
From Operation World 7th edition by Jason Mandryk, published by WEC and Biblica, 2010
Number of Christians in the world
There are an estimated 2.3 billion Christians in the world (from CIA Factbook 2012). Christianity is the fastest growing faith by conversion and also by natural growth (births minus deaths); according to figures from the World Christian Encyclopedia the numbers of new Christians each year is approximately 25 million.
Religious beliefs around the world
The CIA World Factbook website has the following estimated figures for religions in the world:
| Religion | Percentage of the population | |
| Christian | 33.39% | |
| → | Roman Catholic | 16.85% |
| → | Protestants | 6.15% |
| → | Orthodox | 3.96% |
| → | Anglicans | 1.26% |
| Muslims | 22.74% | |
| Hindus | 13.8% | |
| Buddhists | 6.77% | |
| Sikhs | 0.35% | |
| Jews | 0.22% | |
| Baha'is | 0.11% | |
| Other religions | 10.95% | |
| non-religious | 9.66% | |
| Atheists | 2.01% (2010 estimates) | |
Using figures from The World's Religion in Figures by Todd Johnson, Peter Brierley, produced the following table:
|
| 1910 | 1950 | 1970 | 2000 | 2010 | 2025 |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| No religion | 0.2 | 6.7 | 19.2 | 12.9 | 11.8 | 10.2 |
| Agnostics | 0.2 | 5.1 | 14.7 | 10.7 | 9.8 | 8.6 |
| Atheists | 0.0 | 1.6 | 4.5 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 1.6 |
| All religion | 99.8 | 93.3 | 80.8 | 87.1 | 88.2 | 89.8 |
| Christian | 34.8 | 34.2 | 33.2 | 32.4 | 32.7 | 33.7 |
| Muslim | 12.6 | 13.6 | 15.6 | 21.1 | 22.5 | 24.6 |
| Hindu | 12.7 | 12.6 | 12.5 | 13.5 | 13.8 | 14.0 |
| Buddhist | 7.9 | 7.0 | 6.4 | 7.3 | 7.2 | 7.0 |
| All others | 31.8 | 25.9 | 13.1 | 12.8 | 12.0 | 10.5 |
| World population | 1.76 Billion | 2.56 Billion | 3.70 Billion | 6.2 Billion | 6.91 Billion | 8.00 Billion |
Source: Future First, December 2014
