Faiths and the faithless

Hard numbers are often scant in questions of faith. But a new report from the Pew Research Centre, a self-described “fact tank” in Washington, DC, on the state of religious belief in 2010 provides some welcome light. It estimates that 5.8 billion adults and children—around 84% of the world population in 2010—have some kind of religious affiliation.

Of the 1.1 billion unaffiliated, many profess some belief in a higher power. Asia has by far the largest number of people who claim to have no religion; China’s official atheism explains much of that. But 44% of unaffiliated Chinese adults say they have worshipped at a graveside or tomb in the past year. And China has the world’s seventh-largest Christian population, estimated at 68m.

The report also contains data on believers who do not adhere to any of the Abrahamic religions, to Hinduism or to Buddhism. These include 405m followers of folk religions, which are hard to measure. Other beliefs that often elude census-takers are Shintoism, Jainism, the Bahai faith, Sikhism, Wicca and Zoroastrianism. Their adherents are among the quarter of the world’s believers who live as religious minorities: a category that also includes most Jews and Buddhists.

Future reports will cover switching between religions, fertility and mortality rates, and migration.

CORRECTION: This aritcle originally stated that 44% of Chinese say they have worshipped at a graveside or tomb in the past year. This was tweaked on December 20th.