Free Republic

Whoever said “Numbers never lie” was not a religion reporter. Beware of confidently using specific numbers about religious identification or belief. Here’s why. The U.S. Census, the usual standard for counting people and their characteristics, does not ask people their religious affiliation. There is no single religion survey that is considered to be the most reliable (see Page 27). The results differ depending on what options are offered, how people are contacted, how many people are surveyed and other factors. Numbers can vary widely, and many faith groups are so small that they rarely show up on surveys in proportion...

Catholic Church 1,050,000,000 Sunni Islam 900,000,000 Eastern Orthodox Church 225,000,000 Jinja Honcho 83,000,000 Anglican Communion 73,000,000 Ethiopian Orthodox Church 35,000,000 Assemblies of God 32,000,000 Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) 27,400,000 Sikhism 23,000,000 Juche (North Korea) 19,000,000