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The list of religious populations article provides a comprehensive overview of the distribution and size of religious groups around the world. This article aims to present statistical information on the number of adherents to various religions, including major faiths such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and others, as well as smaller religious communities.
Of the global atheist and non-religious population, 76% live in Asia and the Pacific, while the remainder reside in Europe (12%), North America (5%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (2%) and the Middle East and North Africa (less than 1%). [10] The prevalence of atheism in Africa and South America typically falls below ...
Despite having no state religion, the German government collects religious taxes for the constituents of several religions; the fee for leaving a religious body has been challenged by atheists. Some states, regardless of state endorsement of a religion, protect major religions against insult (which may include profession of atheism or criticism ...
The world's principal religions and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups, though this is not a uniform practice. This theory began in the 18th century with the goal of recognizing the relative degrees of civility in different societies, [2] but this concept of a ranking order has since fallen into disrepute in many contemporary cultures.
Respondents to religious-belief polls may define "atheism" differently or draw different distinctions between atheism, non-religious beliefs, and non-theistic religious and spiritual beliefs. [180] A 2010 survey published in Encyclopædia Britannica found that the non-religious made up about 9.6% of the world's population, and atheists about 2.0%.
[428] [426] [429] Most of the growth in the late 20th century was seeded out of North America by means of the planned migration of individuals. [430] Yet, rather than being a cultural spread from either Iran or North America, in 2001, sociologist David Barrett wrote that the Baháʼí Faith is, "A world religion with no racial or national focus ...
Atheist as a label of practical godlessness was used at least as early as 1577. [14] The term atheism was derived from the French athéisme, [15] and appears in English about 1587. [16] An earlier work, from about 1534, used the term atheonism. [17] [18] Related words emerged later: deist in 1621, [19] theist in 1662, [20] deism in 1675, [21 ...
Manichaeism (/ ˌ m æ n ɪ ˈ k iː ɪ z əm /; [4] in Persian: آئین مانی Āʾīn-ī Mānī; Chinese: 摩尼教; pinyin: Móníjiào) is a former major world religion, [5] founded in the 3rd century CE by the Parthian [6] prophet Mani (216–274 CE), in the Sasanian Empire.