Top 5 major religions

Surveys show that most people identify themselves as belonging to a religious tradition. There are currently 8 billion people in the world. Around 17% of them identify themselves as non-believers. This means that 90% of them are believers. And 85% belong to the five most prominent religions in the world.

Chinese folk religion - rank 5

Chinese folk religion is an umbrella term for all Chinese religious practices. It is a vinaigrette of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese folk beliefs.

Put simply, Chinese folk religion is based on three Celtic pillars. The cult of the sky, where the sky is the source of moral principles, the supreme deity and the seat of power. The cult of Qi, where Qi is the creative force and energy. The cult of the ancestors.

It is difficult to quantify the number of followers of this religion, with different sources giving figures varying by up to 100 million. As a result, the approximate number of followers is between 400 and 500 million, which represents about 5% of the world's population.

Buddhism - 4th place

Buddhism emerged around the fifth and fourth centuries after the preaching of the Indian Prince Siddhārtha Gautama, also known as Shakyamuni Buddha. Buddhism teaches that the ultimate goal of life is to attain nirvana, the state of supreme enlightenment, when one ceases to be oneself and escapes the wheel of samsara - eternal rebirth.

Buddhism is widespread in Central Asia, the Far East and Southeast Asia. It has just over 500 million followers.

Hinduism - 3rd place

Hinduism is the religion of most of India's population. Hinduism is not a single religion, there are many denominations, like Buddhism or Christianity. Within Hinduism, four main Hindu traditions have much in common: Vaishnavism, Shivaism, Shaktism and Neo-Hinduism.

Hinduism has around 1.16 billion followers, which is 15% of the world's population. It is one of the fastest-growing religions.

Islam - 2nd place

Islam is generally considered the youngest religion in the world. Muslims live mainly in Asian and African countries. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population. The main streams of Islam are Sunnism and Shi'ism, with 80-90% of Muslims being Sunni.

In total, there are about 1.9 billion Muslims in the world. This represents nearly 25% of the world's population. Some think tanks predict that Islam is likely to become the world's most populous religion by 2070.

Christianity - 1st place

Christianity is the world's largest religion. The main Christian centers are no longer in Europe and North America but in Africa. The United States has the largest Christian population. The main branches of Christianity are Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy. Catholics make up about half of all Christians.

Christians are followed by a total of 2.3 billion people. This represents 31% of the world's population. Islam is growing much faster than Christianity, but most research centers estimate that Christianity will remain the world's largest religion until 2050.