Research titled The Global Religious Landscape: One out of every six people in the world is irreligious!

The Dhaka Times Desk People who do not believe in any religion have now become the third largest segment of the world. According to a new study on religion, the non-religious are the most outnumbered after Christians and Muslims, surpassing Hindus. This country.com.

According to this research report titled The Global Religious Landscape by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 6.9 billion or 84 percent of the world's people are followers of some religion. 16 percent of the total population has no religion; They are atheists or agnostics. Those who have spiritual beliefs but have no connection with any established religion are also included in the category of 'irreligious'.

A recent report said, 'Many of the non-religious also have religious or spiritual beliefs. 7 percent of non-religious Chinese, 30 percent of non-religious French and 68 percent of non-religious American adults believe in a creator or an infinite power.'

Christians are the largest religious group in the world. 2.2 billion Christians are about 31.5 percent of the world's total population. 50 percent of Christians are followers of the Roman Catholic Church. Protestant and Orthodox Christians are 37 percent and 12 percent respectively. Muslims are next in number to Christians. 1.6 billion people in the world are followers of Islam, which is about 23 percent of the world's population. The majority of Muslims are Sunnis, who are about 87 to 90 percent. 10 to 13 percent of Muslims belong to the Shia tribe. And the number of 'irreligious' people in the third position is 110 crores. 62 percent of them live in China. 52.2 percent of China's population is non-religious, and 57 percent of Japan's total population does not believe in any religion.

About one billion people of the world are Hindus, who are 15 percent of the world's total population. Most of them live in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The total number of Buddhists is around 50 crores which is about 7 percent. Half of them live in China. 6 percent of the world's population or 40.5 million people practice different folk religions. These include the various races of Africa and China, Australia and the indigenous peoples of North and South America. 5.8 million people in the world follow other religions.

According to the research report, the average age of Muslims in the world is the youngest, 23 years. Therefore, the number of followers of Islam may increase more than the followers of other religions, the report said. On the other hand, 1.4 million Jews have the highest average age, 36 years. The average age of Christians is 30 years and that of Hindus is 26 years. And the average age of non-religious people is 34.

Studies have shown that Christianity is almost equally spread across the world. Christians are spread in almost all regions of the world. On the other hand, there are 94 percent Hindus in India. According to the research report, 97 percent of the world's Hindus, 87 percent of Christians and 73 percent of Muslims live in countries where they are the majority. Christians are the majority in 157 countries of the world. Muslims are the majority in 49 countries. Hindus are more numerous only in India, Nepal and Mauritius. The research was conducted on the basis of a large amount of data from 2010, according to the news.