{"id":287233,"date":"2026-02-12T09:52:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=287233"},"modified":"2026-02-12T09:52:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:52:49","slug":"religious-diversity-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2026\/02\/12\/religious-diversity-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious Diversity Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
About this research <\/summary>\n

This Pew Research Center report describes levels of religious diversity in 201 countries and territories. We measure how evenly each country\u2019s population is distributed among seven groups: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, adherents of all other religions (an umbrella category) and people with no religious affiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did we do this? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project<\/a>, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world. It builds on our recently published work on the world\u2019s religious composition<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did we do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The core of this analysis is our Religious Diversity Index (RDI). It relies on a mathematical formula that ecologists use to measure the diversity of species<\/a> in a particular area and economists use to measure market concentration<\/a>. Based on the size of seven religious groups, we calculate the religious diversity of 201 countries and territories that together are home to 99.98% of the world\u2019s population. Refer to this report\u2019s Methodology<\/a> for details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calculations are based on our religious composition estimates<\/a> for 201 countries and territories, which were first published in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Singapore<\/strong> is the world\u2019s most religiously diverse country as of 2020, according to a new Pew Research Center study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chart<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Buddhists (31%) are Singapore\u2019s largest religious group, but its population also includes substantial shares of religiously unaffiliated people (20%), Christians (19%), Muslims (16%), Hindus (5%) and adherents of all other religions (9%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suriname <\/strong>ranks second in religious diversity and is the only Latin American country in the top 10. About half of Suriname\u2019s residents (53%) are Christians. The rest are mainly Hindus (22%), Muslims (13%) and religiously unaffiliated people (8%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the other places in the top 10 are in the Asia-Pacific region (Taiwan, South Korea <\/strong>and Australia)<\/strong> or in sub-Saharan Africa (Mauritius, Guinea-Bissau, Togo <\/strong>and Benin).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

France<\/strong> is the only European country on the top 10 list. Its population is largely Christian (46%) and religiously unaffiliated (43%), with a sizable Muslim minority (9%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bar<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The United States<\/strong> is not<\/em> among the 10 most religiously diverse countries in the world (it ranks 32nd overall). But when looking just at the 10 most populous <\/em>nations<\/a>, the U.S. ranks first in religious diversity, followed by Nigeria, Russia, India and Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This analysis divides the world\u2019s population into seven categories \u2013 Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, adherents of all other religions and people with no religious affiliation \u2013 and measures how evenly these groups are represented within each country or territory.[1. People who identify with no religion, also known as the religiously unaffiliated or \u201cnones,\u201d include those who say they are atheist, agnostic or \u201cnothing in particular\u201d in response to a Pew Research Center survey question about religious identity, as well as people who choose a \u201cno religion\u201d or \u201cnone\u201d option in other surveys and national censuses.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why just 7 religious groups?<\/summary>\n

This analysis relies on Pew Research Center\u2019s previous estimates<\/a> of the religious makeup of 201 countries and territories, published in 2025. These estimates divide the world\u2019s population into seven categories: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, adherents of all other religions and people with no religious affiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limiting the analysis to seven categories allows us to compare data from around the world, even though such broad categories may obscure the diversity that exists within <\/em>religious traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We acknowledge that many countries\u2019 scores would be different if we subdivided the seven large groups into smaller ones. For example, Singapore would appear even more diverse if different groups within the \u201cother religions\u201d category \u2013 such as Daoists (also spelled Taoists) and followers of Chinese folk religions \u2013 were counted separately. The United States would have a higher score if we counted many Christian denominations<\/a> as separate religious groups, and Pakistan\u2019s score would be higher if various Islamic sects<\/a> were counted separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One challenge, however, is that there is no single, universally accepted way to subdivide large religious traditions. For example, Christianity could be divided into three main traditions (Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox) or into dozens \u2013 or even hundreds \u2013 of smaller groupings. The same is true of other faiths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more details, refer to the Methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

We ranked a total of 201 countries and territories using our Religious Diversity Index (RDI). Possible scores range from 0 (for a country made up entirely of a single religious group) to 10 (for a country with perfectly even distributions of all seven groups, each making up about 14% of the population). (Refer to the Methodology<\/a> for more on how we calculated RDI scores.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a score of 9.3, Singapore comes closer to an even distribution of religious groups than any other country. By comparison, South Korea\u2019s score is 7.3, France\u2019s is 6.9, and the United States\u2019 score is 5.8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Explore our sortable table<\/a> to see how all 201 countries and territories rank.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chart<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No country in our analysis has a score of 10. But three countries have scores near 0, making them the least religiously diverse<\/em> places in the world, according to our analysis: Yemen, Afghanistan <\/strong>and Somalia. <\/strong>In each, Muslims represent 99.8% or more of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, Muslims make up at least 99% of the population in eight of the 10 least religiously diverse countries and territories. The other two \u2013 Timor-Leste <\/strong>and Moldova<\/strong> \u2013 have populations that are almost entirely Christian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversity in the world\u2019s largest societies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If we focus just on the world\u2019s 10 most populous<\/em> countries, each of which is home to at least 120 million people, then the United States<\/strong> emerges as the most religiously diverse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christians make up an estimated 64% of the U.S. population as of 2020, while religiously unaffiliated people account for about 30%. The remaining 6% are Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and people in the \u201cother religions\u201d category, with each of these groups making up about 1% to 2%.[2. These U.S. religious composition estimates, like all estimates in this report, include both adults and children. Everyone in the population is allocated to one of the seven religious categories studied. By contrast, Center surveys typically measure only the religious affiliation of adults, and people who do not answer the question about their affiliation are placed in a \u201cdon\u2019t know\/no answer\u201d category. Those decisions account for some differences between the U.S. numbers in this report and those in our reports on the religious composition of U.S. adults.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria <\/strong>is the second-most religiously diverse of these big countries. Muslims and Christians, the largest groups in Nigeria, each make up more than 40% of the population. In fact, Nigeria is among the nations that are most evenly divided between two religious categories<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/em><\/strong> 5 <\/span>facts about religion in Nigeria<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan,<\/strong> where Muslims account for 97% of all residents, is the least religiously diverse of the 10 most populous countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RDI scores of the world\u2019s most populous countries cover a large range, from 5.8 in the U.S. to 0.8 in Pakistan. Together, these 10 countries account for nearly 60% of the global population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bar<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These are among the key findings of a Pew Research Center analysis of religious diversity around the world. The study is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project<\/a>, which seeks to understand global religious change and its impact on societies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of this report covers the<\/strong> following:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n