'No religion' group is world third-largest, after Christians and Muslims

December 28, 2012

As per a study entitled “The Global Religious Landscape” by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, People with no religious affiliation make up the third-largest global group after Christians and Muslims and just before Hindus.

Islam and Hinduism mostly likely to expand in the future while Jews have the weakest growth prospects.
Christianity is the most evenly spread religion, present in all regions of the world, while Hinduism is the least global with 94 % of its population in one country, India.
84% of the world’s inhabitants identify with a religion.

Who are the people in “Unaffiliated” category?

It covers all those who do not belong to any religion, from atheists and agnostics to people with spiritual beliefs but no link to any established faith.

How the expansion of a religion has been calculated?

The growth of a religion has been calculated on the basis of median age of its respective believers.
The median age highlights the population bulge at the point where half the population is above and half below that number.
Muslims had the lowest median age at 23 years, compared to 28 for believers all around the world. It shows that Muslims are going to grow.
Judaism has the highest median age at 36, meaning its growth prospects are weakest.
Among the 1.1 billion unaffiliated people around the world, 62 % live in China alone and they make up 52.2 % of the Chinese population.
Japan is the only other country with an unaffiliated majority, at 57 % of the national population.
Around 50% of the world’s Buddhists live in China, followed by Thailand at 13.2 % and Japan with 9.4 of Buddhist population.
“Other religions” includes Baha’i, Taoism, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Tenrikyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism. Most were in the Asia-Pacific region.