Data source: Gina A. Zurlo, ed., World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2025).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| Muslims | Followers of Islam, in two primary branches: (a) Sunni; and (b) Shia. Other, significantly smaller, branches include Kharijite, Sanusi, Mahdiya, Ahmadiya, Druzes and Sabbateans. |
| nation | (1) A politically-organised nationality with independent, self-governing existence as a sovereign country or nation-state; (2) a synonym for country (qv). (3) A people or people group (qv). |
| native language | Mother tongue (qv). |
| New Religionists | Adherents of Hindu or Buddhist groups or offshoots, or new syncretistic religions combining Christianity with Eastern religions. |
| New Religions | 20th-century Asiatic movements; Eastern or indigenous non-Christian syncretistic religions, e.g., Japanese neo-Buddhist and neo-Shinto New Religious movements and Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesian syncretistic religions. |
| nonreligionists | Agnostics (qv) and atheists (qv). |
| Orthodox | Four traditions: Eastern (Chalcedonian), Oriental (Pre-Chalcedonian, Non-Chalcedonian, Monophysite), Assyrian and non-historical Orthodox. |
| p.a. | Per annum, per year, each year, every year, annual, yearly, over the previous 12 months. |
| Pentecostals | Followers of Pentecostalism, a major Christian movement originating around 1900; a renewal movement within Protestant and Independent Christianity that places emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts (e.g., speaking in tongues). |
| people, people group | Grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another because of their shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, occupation, class or caste, situation or combination of these. |
| polytheists | Ethnic religionists (qv) who worship several or many gods and deities. |
| Protestants | Christians in churches originating in, or reformulated at the time of, or in communion with, the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In European languages usually called Evangéliques (French), Evangelische (German), Evangélicos (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish), though not usually Evangelicals (in English). |
| religion | Grouping of persons with beliefs about God or gods, defined by its adherents’ loyalty to it, by their acceptance of it as unique and superior to all other religions, and by its relative autonomy. |
| religionists | Persons professing adherence to any religion, as contrasted with atheists or nonreligious persons. |
| religious liberty | Freedom to practice one’s religion with the full range of religious rights specified in the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. |
| Shaivites | Saivites. Worshippers of Shiva (Siva) in several schools, including Pasupata, Kashmiri, Siddha, Gorakhnatha, Vira. |
| Shaktas | Saktists. Worshippers of Shakti/Devi (Hindu Divine Mother) who is also depicted as Kali, Durga and Parvati (consort of Shiva). |
| shamanists | Ethnic religionists with a hierarchy of shamans and healers. |
| Shias | Followers of the smaller of the 2 divisions of Islam, rejecting the Sunna and holding that Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali was the Prophet’s successor and itself divided into the Ithna-Ashari Ismaili, Alawite and Zaydi groups. |
| Shintoists | Followers of the indigenous religion of Japan, a collective of native beliefs and mythology dating back to 660 BCE and includes worship at public shrines in devotion to a number of gods. |
| Sikhs | Followers of the Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak in the 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Traditions include Akali, Khalsa, Nanapanthi, Nirmali, Sewapanthi and Udasi. |
| Spiritists | Non-Christian spiritists or spiritualists, or thaumaturgicalists; high spiritists, as opposed to low spiritists (Afro-American syncretists), followers of medium-religions, medium-religionists. |
| Sufis | Islamic mysticism, including scores of millions of Sunni Muslims in 70 orders including Ahmadiya, Bektashiya, Christiya, Dargawa, Dervishes, Fakirs, Malamatiya, Mawlawiya, Naqshbandiya, Qadriya, Qalandariya, Rifaiya, Shadhiliya, Shattariya, Suhrawardiya, Tijaniya. |
| Sunnis | Sunnites. Followers of the larger of the major branches of Islam, that adheres to the orthodox tradition of the sunna, acknowledges the first 4 caliphs, and recognises 4 schools of jurisprudence: Hanafite, Hanbalite, Malikite, Shafiite. |
| syncretism | The blending of beliefs from different sources. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.