Religious Demographics Trivia Quiz

Answer: Christianity

Unless otherwise noted, all statistics for this quiz come from adherents.com. At the start of the 21st century, there were over two billion adherents to Christianity worldwide. Outside of the western world, adherents were most predominant in South Korea, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Philippines. Islam was the second largest religion with about 1.5 billion adherents.

Answer: Buddhism

Buddhism had less than half as many adherents as the third largest religion listed above, Hinduism.

Answer: Indonesia and Pakistan

Along with Indonesia and Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Nigeria, and China were the countries with the largest total number of Muslims. In the U.S., Muslims made up less than one percent of the total population, and, in the U.K., less than 3 percent.

Answer: Judaism

Judaism was the largest of these religions, with approximately 14 million adherents worldwide. The next largest religion from this list, Baha'i, had about half as many adherents. Scientology had the least.

Answer: Vietnam

Over 60 million Vietnamese identified as agnostic or atheistic. In surveys of the U.S., the number of self-identifying agnostics and atheists ranges broadly from 9 to 26 million; in Spain, from 6 to 9 million, and in Greece under 2 million. Other countries containing large populations of atheists or agnostics include Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.

Answer: False

More people identified as Muslim alone (approximately 1.5 billion) than identified as secular (approximately 1.1 billion).

Answer: Zoroastrianism

Many world almanacs approximate the Zoroastrian population to be between 2 to 3 million. Zoroastrianism was previously considered in danger of extinction, in part because most adherents did not believe in allowing conversions.

Answer: Nepal

Over 80% of Nepal's population was Hindu, compared with about 11% of Bangladesh's. Trinidad and Tobago boasted an approximately 24% Hindu population. Hindus are a minority in both the U.S. and the U.K.

Answer: Rastafarianism

Exact populations are difficult to estimate, but even using the most generous figures, Rastafarians were the smallest of these groups as of 2000. Rastafarians are primarily concentrated in the Caribbean nations. The number professing themselves as Rastafarians has increased significantly in recent years, but their numbers are still far fewer than of the other religions listed.

Answer: Mahayana

Lamaism, which incorporates Vajrayana, Tibetan, and Tantric Buddhism was the smallest branch, with about 20,000,000 adherents worldwide.

Answer: Catholic

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, as of mid-1995, Catholics were the largest branch, followed by Protestants, "other Christians," the Orthodox, and Anglicans, who numbered over 70 million.

Answer: True

After Sunni, the second largest branch of Islam is Shia. Other smaller branches of Islam include Kharijite and Ahmadiyya.

Answer: Reconstructionist

The Reconstructionist movement began in the United States originally as a branch of Conservative Judaism, but it eventually splintered into its own denomination. It does not require Jewish law to be accepted as normative but, unlike Reform Judaism, it expects such laws to be incorporated into Jewish people's lives unless they have specific reasons not to.

Answer: Less than 0.5%

As of 2010, approximately 0.22% of the world population was Jewish. This was less than the percentage of the world population adhering to the religions of Spiritism, Juche, or Sikhism.

Answer: Juche

In Korean, "juche" means "self-reliance." It is considered by some to be the specifically North Korean form of Marxist Communism. Though not classified as a religion by North Korea itself, Juche fits the sociological criteria for a religion and is included in the world religion database of adherents.com.

Answer: Jainism

Jainism teaches its adherents to limit their possessions and to cause no harm toward any living being, human or non-human.

Answer: Cao Dai

Adherents to Cao Dai, which was established in the 1920s, practice vegetarianism, veneration of ancestors, and nonviolence.

Answer: Tenrikyo

This evangelical religion also has adherents outside of Japan, in South Korea, Taiwan, Hawaii, and Brazil, among other places. However, its adherents constitute an extreme minority everywhere except Japan.

Answer: The United States

The 2000 American Jewish Yearbook reported an American Jewish population of approximately 5.7 million, as compared to Israel's 4.4 million. Other countries with a sizeable Jewish population include Russia, France, Canada, the UK, and Argentina.

Answer: Judaism

Jews made up about 1.2% of the population, while Muslims made up approximately 0.6% and Buddhists 0.5%.