---
id: kb-2026-00349
title: World Religions
schema_type: TechArticle
category: geography
language: en
confidence: medium
last_verified: '2026-05-28'
created_date: '2026-05-22'
generation_method: ai_structured
ai_models:
  - claude-opus
derived_from_human_seed: true
conflict_of_interest: none_declared
is_live_document: false
data_period: '2020'
atomic_facts:
  - id: fact-geography-001
    statement: Pew Research Center's 2025 global religious landscape report groups the world population into Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, other religions, and the religiously unaffiliated.
    source_title: How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020
    source_url: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/
    confidence: medium
  - id: fact-geography-002
    statement: Pew estimates that Christians remained the largest religious group in 2020, at 2.3 billion people or 28.8 percent of the world population.
    source_title: How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020
    source_url: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/
    confidence: medium
  - id: fact-geography-003
    statement: Pew estimates that Muslims were the fastest-growing religious group from 2010 to 2020 and reached 25.6 percent of the world population in 2020.
    source_title: How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020
    source_url: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/
    confidence: medium
primary_sources:
  - title: How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020
    type: research_report
    year: 2025
    institution: Pew Research Center
    url: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/
completeness: 0.78
known_gaps:
  - This entry now uses one demographic source for public claims; doctrinal summaries of individual religions require separate sourced entries.
---

## TL;DR

Public claims in this article are limited to Pew Research Center's demographic categories and estimates. Doctrinal summaries and older population numbers were removed because the sampled article did not support them with precise sources.

## Core Explanation

World-religion data changes by year, category definition, and methodology. This entry therefore treats the Pew 2025 report as the current evidence anchor and avoids mixing it with unsourced textbook or atlas claims.

## Further Reading

- [How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/)

## Related Articles

- [Cultural Geography](../cultural-geography.md)
- [Population Geography](../population-geography.md)
- [Human Geography](../human-geography.md)