Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Eight-in-Ten in World Identify with a Rel. Group; Study Finds That Christians Lead World with 2.2B

A new study of more than 230 countries and territories -- conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life -- finds that more than eight-in-ten people worldwide identify with a religious group, the Ekklesia website reports today (December 19, 2012).

At the same time, the number of those unaffiliated with religion is on the rise, and now constitutes the third-largest global belief group.

The report estimates that there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84 percent of the 2010 population of 6.9 billion.

The study finds that 2.2 billion Christians (32 percent of the world's population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23 percent), 1 billion Hindus (15 percent), nearly 500 million Buddhists (7 percent), and 14 million Jews (0.2 percent) around the world as of 2010.

The study also finds that about one-in-six people around the globe (1.1 billion, or 16 percent) have no religious affiliation.

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