Major World Religions

Major World Religions

 

Around the world there are hundreds of religions, and researchers have struggled to pinpoint an exact number. Nearly 15 years ago a website call “Adherents” had been collecting information about as many world religions as possible, and they stated that they had collected information about church goers for “over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc.” This does not mean that the world contains 4,200 religions, as many other websites have falsely cited. Other sources cite as few as 100 and as many as 10,000.

 

While it may be challenging to pinpoint every religion with small populations we can identify the five largest religious groups, ordered here from largest to smallest:

1.) Christianity

2.) Islam

3.) Hinduism

4.) Buddhism

5.) Folk Religions

 

The top four largest religions all have several branches each, with Christianity having at least six branches and upwards of 43,000 different denominations, Islam having two branches with an estimated 40 denominations, Hinduism having four major sects with varying ideologies within each sect, and Buddhism having 12. The last largest “religion” around the world is actually a collection of religions that may or may not follow some of the same beliefs as major religions but are practiced within “small, local communities (but) which (do) not adhere to the norms of large systems,” as defined by The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions by John Bowker.

While each of the first four major religions might have a large number of separate denominations, they are grouped as one single religion based on their core beliefs, the holy texts they follow, and the deities whom they worship. As you move throughout this course you will learn what differentiates each of the core religions, however, we will not dive into the variations between each denomination.