The world's major religions by Jim Pinto

In the last issue of eNews (25 April 08) I mentioned that Islam had overtaken Catholicism as the world's largest religion. Many readers pointed out correctly that Islam is also fragmented into different segments, and so the true comparison is between all Christians (2.1 billion) and all of Islam (est. 1.5 billion).

Earlier estimates for numbers of Muslims were 1 to 1.3 billion, but high birth rates in Muslim countries continue to make Islam the fastest growing religion in the world.

Sunni and Shia are the two major denominations of Islam. About 85% of the world's Muslims are Sunni, and the remaining 15% are Shia (also referred to as Shiite). If one accepts the total number of Muslims as 1.5 billion, then there are indeed more Sunni Muslims (1.3 billion) than Catholics.

Here are the major world religions (source Adherents.com):

Rank			%
1	Christianity	2.1 billion	33%
2	Islam	1.5 billion	21%
3	Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist	1.1 billion	16%
4	Hinduism	900 million	14%
5	Chinese traditional (Confucianism, Taoism)	394 million	6%
6	Buddhism	376 million	6%

Of the major religions (54% of the world) only Christianity and Islam are "Exclusive": claiming "we are right, you are wrong". The others all tend to be "Plural" or "Inclusive": Despite differences, we can live together; or, we're one family.

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