11. Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean
Most people in the Latin America-Caribbean region are Christian. The region’s unaffiliated population grew rapidly since 2010.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Most people in the Latin America-Caribbean region are Christian. The region’s unaffiliated population grew rapidly since 2010.
Baha’is, Jains, Sikhs, Daoists and other groups that Pew Research Center classified as “other religions” combined – grew globally by 12% from 2010 to 2020.
The religiously unaffiliated population is the world’s third-largest religious category and grew the second-fastest between 2010 and 2020.
Christians remain the largest religious group. But they’re shrinking as a share of the global population, as many Christians are leaving religion altogether.
Muslims are the world’s fastest-growing and second-largest religious group. In the Middle East-North Africa region, they make up 94% of the population.
A majority of North Americans are Christian. But Christian populations declined in the U.S. and Canada, while the unaffiliated grew, from 2010 to 2020.
Buddhism is the only major religion that declined in number globally between 2010 and 2020, mostly due to religious disaffiliation in East Asia and to low birth rates.
Jewish people make up 0.2% of the world population. Jews rose in number by 6% from 2010 to 2020, mostly due to growth in Israel.
Christians remain the largest religious group, and Muslims grew the fastest from 2010 to 2020. Read how the global share of Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated changed.
Read how Pew Research Center revised our estimates to reflect methodological advances, incorporate newly available data, and allow comparison across measures in this report.
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