Global Indicators by Religion

1. Share of world economic output by largest affiliation, 2020

Christian — 48.521Unaffiliated — 26.49Muslim — 14.366Hindu — 6.853Buddhist — 1.958Jewish — 0.268Unallocated — 1.543

Countries where Christianity is the largest affiliation account for about 48.5% of world economic output in this comparison. Their economic weight stretches across North America, Europe, Latin America and parts of Africa. The United States is the largest single contributor, while Germany, Russia and Brazil add substantial output from different regions. This broad geographic spread helps explain the size of the Christian category.

Countries with an unaffiliated plurality contribute around 26.5%, led overwhelmingly by China, with Japan and South Korea also important. Muslim-plurality economies account for roughly 14.4%, encompassing large manufacturing and service economies as well as energy exporters. India dominates the Hindu category’s 6.9% share. These patterns show how a small number of very large economies can strongly influence a global grouping. The economic geography differs from the population geography: a community’s share of the world’s people and the output of countries where it is largest answer different questions about its global presence.

Sources: Pew, 2020 affiliation; World Bank, 2020 GDP at PPP. 184 matched economies cover 98.5% of World Bank world GDP. Whole economies are grouped, not believers’ personal incomes. Grey: GDP not allocated to a matched country/category.

2. Economic output of countries grouped by affiliation, 2020

The Christian-plurality group produces about 68 trillion international dollars of output, compared with roughly 37 trillion for the unaffiliated group and 20 trillion for the Muslim group. These totals underline the enormous scale of the economies associated with all three categories. The gap between the first two is substantial, but China’s economic weight gives the unaffiliated group a much larger presence than its relatively small number of countries might suggest.

Within the Muslim group, Indonesia, Turkey and Egypt are the largest contributors in the matched data. Their importance shows that this category’s economic activity extends well beyond oil and gas production. India supplies almost all of the Hindu group’s output, whereas Thailand and Singapore make substantial contributions to the Buddhist-plurality group. The Jewish category is represented by Israel. Large totals can reflect a large population, high output per person, or both, which is why countries with very different living standards can contribute to the same broad economic group.

Sources: Pew, 2020 affiliation; World Bank, 2020 GDP at PPP. 184 matched economies cover 98.5% of World Bank world GDP. Whole economies are grouped, not believers’ personal incomes. Units: trillions of current international dollars. Countries without a matched GDP estimate remain unrecorded in the table.

3. Absolute poverty among three religious populations, 1970–2010

ChristiansMuslimsHindus

The estimated poverty rate among Hindus fell from about 53% in 1970 to 25% in 2010, a reduction of roughly twenty-eight percentage points. The Muslim rate declined from about 40% to 14%, while the Christian rate moved from approximately 16% to 13%. All three groups experienced improvement, but the largest falls occurred among the two groups that began with much higher poverty levels.

The gap between Hindu and Christian poverty rates narrowed from around thirty-six percentage points to about twelve. By 2010, the estimated Christian and Muslim rates were much closer together than four decades earlier. Geography is central to this history. Hindu populations are heavily concentrated in India, while Christian and Muslim populations are spread across countries with very different economic conditions. Rising living standards in populous Asian countries changed the global picture considerably. At the same time, continued population growth means that a falling poverty rate can coexist with a large number of people still experiencing severe material hardship.

Source: Skirbekk and Navarro, 2021 and the published chart values. Historical estimate: below $1.90 a day at 2011 PPP; not today’s poverty threshold. Rates combine country poverty and affiliation estimates.

4. Countries and territories by majority affiliation, 2020

Christians form a majority in 120 of the 201 countries and territories covered, giving Christianity a wider majority presence than any other religious group. Islam comes next with fifty-three. Together, these two traditions form majorities across most of the places in the comparison, though their distributions are concentrated in different parts of the world.

Hindus form a majority in only India and Nepal, despite making up nearly fifteen per cent of humanity. India’s enormous population explains much of that contrast. The unaffiliated are a majority in ten places, including China and Japan, while Buddhists form a majority in seven. Seven countries have no majority affiliation at all, among them Singapore, South Korea, France, Australia and the United Kingdom. A religion can consequently have a large global population while forming majorities in very few countries. Conversely, a widely dispersed tradition can be the majority in many smaller countries as well as in some very populous ones.

Source: Pew Research Center, religious composition in 2020. Seven broad affiliation categories; unaffiliated includes people who identify with no religion. Majority means more than 50%; 201 countries and territories. This differs from the largest-group rule used for GDP.

5. Growth of major belief populations, 1800–2000

ChristiansMuslimsHindusBuddhistsAgnostics / atheists

The populations associated with all five categories grew substantially over these two centuries. Christians rose from roughly 204 million in 1800 to nearly two billion in 2000. Muslims increased from about 91 million to 1.3 billion, while Hindus grew from approximately 108 million to 825 million. Buddhist numbers also expanded, from around 69 million to 448 million.

The twentieth century accounts for most of the numerical increase in each of these major traditions. The estimated agnostic and atheist population shows an especially large rise during that century, reaching roughly 791 million by 2000. These changes unfolded alongside rapid growth in the world’s population, longer lives and major social transformations. They also reflect the changing religious histories of particular regions, including the expansion of Christianity beyond Europe and the emergence of large non-religious populations in East Asia. The figures reveal that religious change involves both the growth of established communities and shifts in the balance between affiliation and non-affiliation.

Source: Statistics and Forecasts for World Religions, historical estimates. Millions of people; five selected categories, not a complete world total. Historical definitions differ from Pew’s 2020 affiliation categories.

6. The world’s religious composition in 2020

Christian — 28.77Muslim — 25.65Unaffiliated — 24.16Buddhist — 4.11Hindu — 14.94Jewish — 0.19Other religions — 2.18

Christians remained the largest religious group in 2020, making up about 28.8% of the world’s population. Muslims accounted for roughly 25.6%, and the religiously unaffiliated for 24.2%. Together, these three categories represented close to four-fifths of humanity. Hindus contributed another 14.9%, followed by Buddhists at 4.1% and smaller shares belonging to other religions or Judaism.

The close sizes of the three largest categories are a striking feature of the global landscape. None represents a majority of humanity, and each includes people living in very different societies. Hinduism’s global share is strongly shaped by India, while China has an especially large influence on the unaffiliated total. Christianity and Islam have broader distributions across several regions. Smaller global shares also conceal substantial national and local communities: Buddhism remains central to the religious life of several Asian countries, while Jewish communities have distinctive concentrations in Israel and the United States. Global size and local cultural importance therefore need not move together.

Source: Pew Research Center, religious composition in 2020. Seven broad affiliation categories; unaffiliated includes people who identify with no religion. World shares, rounded; 2020 estimates published in 2025. “Other religions” includes folk traditions and several smaller organised religions.

7. Changes in global population shares, 2010–2020

Islam gained the most global population share between 2010 and 2020, rising by about 1.8 percentage points. The unaffiliated share increased by around 0.9 points. Christianity’s share fell by roughly 1.8 points, while Buddhism’s declined by about 0.8. Hinduism remained close to fifteen per cent, with only a small change over the decade.

A falling share does not always mean a shrinking population. Christian numbers increased during this period, but more slowly than the world population as a whole. Muslim numbers grew faster, giving the group both more people and a larger global share. Buddhist numbers declined in the estimates, so their change involved both a smaller population and a reduced share. These different paths show why numerical growth and relative prominence can diverge. The world became more populous overall, yet its religious balance shifted at the same time. The strongest gains were concentrated in Islam and non-affiliation, rather than being spread evenly across all of the major categories.

Source: Pew Research Center, religious composition in 2020. Seven broad affiliation categories; unaffiliated includes people who identify with no religion. Change = 2020 share minus 2010 share, in percentage points; revised estimates from the same Pew dataset.

8. Religious composition across world regions, 2020

ChristianMuslimUnaffiliatedBuddhistHinduJewishOther religions

The world’s regions have sharply different religious profiles. Muslims account for about 94% of the population in the Middle East and North Africa, while Christians make up roughly 85% in Latin America and the Caribbean. Christianity also remains the largest affiliation in Europe, North America and sub-Saharan Africa, though the balance with other groups differs substantially.

Asia-Pacific has the broadest mix at this regional scale. The unaffiliated account for about one-third, with Muslims and Hindus each representing roughly one-quarter. Buddhists and Christians add further substantial communities. Sub-Saharan Africa has a different balance, with Christians at around 62% and Muslims at about 33%. In North America, non-affiliation reaches approximately 30%, compared with roughly 25% in Europe. These contrasts explain why global religious totals cannot be understood through one region alone. The same tradition can be a dominant majority in one part of the world, a large minority in another, and a relatively small community elsewhere.

Source: Pew Research Center, religious composition in 2020. Seven broad affiliation categories; unaffiliated includes people who identify with no religion. Population shares within Pew’s six regions; categories sum to approximately 100% after rounding.

9. Non-affiliation and life expectancy in eight countries, 2020

Countries with very low non-affiliation can have markedly different life expectancies. India and Nigeria both have overwhelmingly religiously affiliated populations, yet their life expectancies differ by about seventeen years. Brazil, where non-affiliation is more common, reaches roughly seventy-five years. These contrasts show that a high level of religious affiliation does not correspond to one particular health outcome.

Japan has the highest life expectancy among these eight countries, at about eighty-five years, despite having a lower unaffiliated share than either China or Czechia. Australia also has longer life expectancy than those two countries, while the United States falls below Australia with a smaller unaffiliated share. The three Asian examples alone span a wide range of both affiliation and longevity. Differences within continents are therefore as revealing as differences between them. Health services, income, inequality and the pandemic’s impact in 2020 all form part of the wider national context; religious affiliation alone cannot explain why people live longer in some countries than in others.

Sources: Pew 2020 non-affiliation and population; World Bank 2020 life expectancy at birth. Eight selected countries; x = unaffiliated %, y = years; bubble size = population in millions. Colours indicate continents. USA = United States; Czechia = Czech Republic. Size uses a visibility-adjusted scale, not exact area proportionality.

10. Ten most religiously diverse countries and territories, 2020

Singapore stands out as the most religiously diverse place in this comparison, well ahead of the next group. Its population includes sizeable Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and unaffiliated communities, alongside people belonging to other traditions. No single group approaches a majority, creating an unusually broad balance among affiliations within a relatively small country.

Suriname, Taiwan, South Korea and Mauritius follow, demonstrating that high diversity occurs in very different geographic and historical settings. Several West African countries also appear among the leading ten, together with Australia and France. Diversity can emerge through different combinations: a balance among several religious communities, or a substantial unaffiliated population alongside a large religious group and smaller minorities. A diverse national population does not necessarily mean that every neighbourhood is equally mixed, nor does the pattern by itself describe relations between communities. What the leading places share is a relatively even spread across the broad affiliation categories, rather than overwhelming concentration in a single one.

Source: Pew Religious Diversity Index, 2020 composition; published February 2026. Index 0–10 across seven broad categories; higher means more evenly distributed affiliations, not a measure of tolerance or freedom.

11. Country indicators and religious composition

201 countries and territories; all indicators refer to 2020. Scroll horizontally and vertically. Shares below 0.1% are shown as “<0.1”; missing economic values are not zero. GDP per person uses the World Bank population denominator; the displayed population follows Pew’s UN-based estimate.