The global religious landscape Joan Garrod. Presentation title The global religious landscape The world’s major religious groups In December 2012, the.

The global religious landscape

Joan Garrod

Presentation title The global religious landscape

The world’s major religious groups

In December 2012, the Forum on Religion and Public Life, part of the

US-based Pew Research Center, published research on the size and

projected growth of the world’s major religious groups. The research

task on which the report was based was obviously considerable.

Question:

What problems can you identify with regard to collecting data on who

belongs to which religious organisation (if any) on a global scale?


The world’s major religions

Questions:

1. Which religions would you identify if asked to name the world’s

major religions?

2. Are there any other categories you would wish to look at?


The world’s major religions

Those identified by the Pew Forum were (in alphabetical order):

• Buddhism

• Christianity

• Hinduism

• Islam

• Judaism


Other groups

In addition to these five religions, the study also included estimates for

the size and geographic distribution of three other groups:

• The religiously unaffiliated (those who say they are atheists or

agnostics, or who do not identify with any particular religion)

• Adherents of folk or traditional religions (including Chinese folk

religions, Native American and Aboriginal religions and African

traditional religions)

• Adherents of other religions (e.g. Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism)

(Note that although some of these religions have large numbers of adherents, they are not

specifically measured in censuses and large-scale surveys, so could not be included.)


Who was identified?

In order to present data that are comparable across countries, the

study focused on groups and individuals who identified themselves

in censuses, large-scale surveys and other sources as being

members of the religions or groups concerned. More than 2,500

such censuses, surveys etc. were analysed, covering more than 230

countries and territories.

Question:

Given the nature of the task, this is impressive. What possible

problems can you identify with the method? One example is given

in the previous slide!


Interesting findings!

• The research team estimated from its findings that there are 5.8

billion religiously affiliated children and adults globally.

• This represents 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.

• Roughly one in six people around the world (1.1 billion or 16%)

have no religious affiliation.


Percentage of world’s population


Majority or minority?

• Almost three quarters (73%) of the world’s population live in

countries where their religion makes up the majority.

• Only 27% of people live as religious minorities.

Note, however, that this figure does not include subgroups of the eight

groups studied, such as Shia Muslims living in Sunni majority

countries, or Catholics living in Protestant-majority countries.

Question: Why might this be a problem?


Majorities and minorities

Percentage of each group living in countries where its adherents are a majority or minority

Group Living as majority Living as minority

Hindus 97 3

Christians 87 13

Muslims 73 27

Unaffiliated 71 29

Jews 41 59

Buddhists 28 72

Folk religionists ≤ 1 ≥ 99

Other 0 100

Source: Pew Research Center Forum on Religion and Public Life


Thinking about the figures

Obviously, you would not be expected to remember all the figures in

this presentation. However, you should make notes of some of the

main figures and think about how you might use them.

• For example, look at the proportion of the world’s people that are

religiously affiliated. How might this be used in a discussion about

secularisation?

• What are the implications of people living in a country in which their

religious group is a minority?

• Note also that the figures are about people identifying themselves

as ‘belonging’ to a particular group. What do they tell us about the

extent of belief or religious practice?


Where are they?

The following slides show the regional distribution of Christians,

Muslims and the unaffiliated.

Again, it is worth making brief notes on the main patterns you observe

when comparing these slides.








Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge the kind cooperation of the Pew Research Center and

its permission to reproduce this information.

You may like to look at the full report:

Pew Research Center, ‘The global religious landscape’, December 2012.

http://www.pewforum.org/files/2014/01/global-religion-full.pdf

This resource is part of Sociology Review, a magazine written for A-level students by subject experts. To subscribe to the full magazine go to www.hoddereducation.co.uk/sociologyreview

The global religious landscape Joan Garrod. Presentation title The global religious landscape The world’s major religious groups In December 2012, the.

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