How Many Religions Are There? Which Are the Most Influential?

When it comes to religion, there are five that general stand out from the rest in terms of popularity and cultural influence. These widely recognized world religions represent the majority of religious people in the world.

1. Christianity (31%)

With approximately 31 percent of the world's population professing belief in Christianity, it's easily the world's largest religion, with around 2.3 billion adherents.

Just one example of Christianity's enormous influence can be seen the dates: Our current calendar system starts with the year in which Jesus Christ, the central incarnated figure in the faith, is believed to have been born.

2. Islam (24%)

Islam, the adherents of which are called Muslims, is the second-most popular religion in the world, with around 1.8 billion followers (approximately 24 percent of the global population).

Because of high birth rates in the countries where Islam is widely practiced, it's set to overtake Christianity and become the most popular religion in the world within the next several decades.

3. Hinduism (15%)

Hindus represent about 15 percent of the world's population, approximately 1.1 billion people. Mostly concentrated in the Indian subcontinent, the Hindu faith is exceptionally varied in terms of beliefs and rituals.

India is also believed to be the home of the oldest religious beliefs in the world, with practices that may be older than recorded history.

4. Buddhism (6.9%)

There are about a half billion Buddhists in the world, which amounts to 6.9% of the world's population. Buddhism comes from the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in the 5th century B.C.E.

While it is most popular in East Asia, it has spread to Western countries in the last century or so, gaining popularity among spiritually leaning people who were disenchanted with Christianity.

5. Judaism (0.2%)

Judaism is much smaller than the other religions on this list, with around 13 million adherents, or about 0.2 percent of the global population.

Still, its influence is significant, due to the prominence of Jewish culture in Western Europe and the United States, as well as Israel, which is where around 40 percent of the world's Jewish population lives.

It also has deep connections to Christianity and other Abrahamic religions, which is a source of both affinity and tension.

Another good way to make sense of world religions is to sort them into groups, since even the major religions have things in common — such as their sacred texts, certain spiritual traditions, holy sites and rituals. This also allows us to get a sense of how each religious group has evolved over the years.

1. Abrahamic Religions

This group of religions is named for the patriarch Abraham, a figure believed to have establish a covenant with God. Christianity, Islam and Judaism all share in this prophetic tradition, despite various differences that have emerged in the centuries since.

All of these religions originated in the Middle East, which means that they share lots of holy sites as well, which has unfortunately led to long history of religious violence. There are also various offshoots of these religions, such as the Mormon, Baha'i, Druze and Rastafarian faiths.

2. Indian Religions

This category refers to religions that are practiced on, and can claim their origins on, the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is the largest, but Buddhism can also be categorized as an Indian religion, given that Siddhartha Gautama was an Indian prince.

These are sometimes referred to as the "Dharmic religions," as they share in the idea of dharma, a set of duties and metaphysical principles. More niche religions in this group are Jainism and Sikhism.

3. East Asian Religions

Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto and various folk religions can be grouped together as East Asian religions. They hold in common the idea of the Tao (pronounced "dao"), which means the "way" or the "path."

Various aspects of this religious and philosophical belief system have merged with Indigenous faiths in different East Asian cultures, producing a wide variety of ideas and practices.

There are still a lot of religious people in the world who don't adhere to any of the previously listed categories. These are more difficult to name, since there are so many of them, and while they might share some similar characteristics, they also vary greatly between regions and cultures.

1. Folk Religions

Usually, these are combined together as one of the major religious groups, even though there is a ton of variety between these traditional religions. Usually, these folk religions involve ancient practices that are bound to a very specific culture, although they share certain characteristics, such as ancestor worship and animism.

There are several religious groups that can fall under the heading of folk religions; taken together, they represent Native American religions, African traditional religions, Australian Aboriginal religions and Chinese folk religions.

Given the sheer variety of different Indigenous peoples around the world, we're talking about thousands of different religions. Altogether this makes up around 5.7 percent of the world population, or over 450 million people.

2. Unaffiliated

This is another category that contains multitudes, especially when it's ranked alongside the major religions listed above. It exists to describe people who profess spiritual beliefs, but for one reason or another don't have follow any particular religion.

These folks, who lack a religious affiliation, make up 16 percent of the population, or 1.3 billion people.

Despite the rise of scientific materialism, there's little evidence that religion is going anywhere; today, the vast majority of people still hold some form of religious belief. This is one reason why religious freedom is such a widely recognized aspiration of modern societies.

There's a lot to learn from people's beliefs — today and yesterday — and the study of religions and religious beliefs continues to be a major site of inquiry.

The data for this article comes from the Pew Research Center, which conducted a series of surveys (the most recent was in 2015) that broke down the types of religions and religious groups. This gives us a solid overview, but there's plenty more to be learned, especially about the details of folk religion and major religion alike.

There's also the fact that religions are starting up all the time; plenty don't make it very far, but every now and then, a relatively recent faith — such as the Latter Day Saints movement, of which the Mormons are part — becomes popular and prominent.