Created by two of the fields leading experts, this unique introduction to international religious demography outlines the challenges in interpreting data on religious adherence, and presents a contemporary portrait of global religious belief.Offers the first comprehensive overview of the field of international religious demography detailing what we know about religious adherents around the world, and how we know itExamines religious freedom and diversity, including agnostics and atheists, on a global scale, highlighting trends over the past 100 years and projecting estimates for the year 2050Outlines the issues and challenges related to definitions, taxonomies, sources, analyses, and other techniques in interpreting data on religious adherenceConsiders data from religious communities, censuses, surveys, and scholarly research, along with several in-depth case studies on the global Muslim population, religion in China, and the religious demography of recently created Sudan and South SudanArgues against the belief that the twentieth-century was a secular period by putting forward new evidence to the contraryProvides resources for measuring both qualitatively and quantitatively important data on the world's religious situation in the twenty-first century

Todd M. Johnsonis Associate Professor of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. He is Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA) at Boston University, where he co-edits theWorld Religion Database. Professor Johnson is the co-editor of theAtlas of Global Christianity (with Kenneth Ross, 2009) and co-author ofWorld Christianity Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition (with David Barrett and George Kurian, 2001) andWorld Christian Trends (with David Barrett, et al, 2001).He is also the editor ofthe World Christian Database.Brian J. Grimis Director of cross-national data and Senior Researcher in religion and world affairs atthe Pew Research Centers Forum on Religion& Public Life in Washington, D.C. Dr Grim is also Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University, where he co-edits theWorld Religion Database.He is co-author ofThe Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century (with Roger Finke, 2011).

List of Figures xiii

List of Tables xiv

Foreword xix

Acknowledgments xxiv

Introduction 1

Part I Overview 7

1 Global Religious Populations, 19102010 9

2 Regional Religious Populations, 19102010 81

3 Religious Diversity 93

4 Projecting Religious Populations, 201050 111

Part II Data and Methods 133

5 Defining Religion and Religious Identity 135

6 Religious Demography as an Emerging Discipline 143

7 Major Sources and Collections of Data 163

8 Analyzing Data on Religion 190

9 Dynamics of Change in Religious Populations 205

Part III Case Studies 227

10 Estimating Changes in the Global Muslim Population 229

11 Factors Driving Change in the Global Muslim Population 258

12 Estimating Chinas Religious Populations 286

13 Assessing Religious Populations in the Sudans 313

14 Migration and Religious Diasporas 321

Conclusion 333

Appendix: World Religions by Country 337

Glossary 346

Index 360