The State of the World Atlas [ff]. Dan Smith

      Religious Beliefs

      Faithful countries

      Countries with largest

      populations of Christians

      and Muslims

      Christians

      Muslims

      The vast majority of people profess a religious faith. Although professing a faith

      on a population census form and actually practising it are two very different

      things, their faith is, for many, a basic marker of identity. Shared religious

      conviction can unite people where other things divide them, and even

      between different faiths there is significant ethical common ground

      and a shared openness to the spiritual and immaterial.

      But religious identity coincides with other markers of identity –

      regional, national, ethnic, and cultural. When and where religious

      leaders cannot or will not restrain the way in which adherents to different

      faiths express their differences, conflicts can overheat and explode. Some of

      the world’s most brutal violence is – and has been throughout history –

      inflicted in the name of religion. And some of the worst violence is over

      differences within the same religion: between Protestants and Catholic

      Christians, or between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims. Yet common to all

      major religions is the over-riding value of peace.

      CANADA

      USA

      246m

      BERMUDA

      MEXICO

      107m

      CUBA

      BAHAMAS

      Non-believers

      People who profess no religion

      as a percentage of population

      2005

      20% or more

      10% – 19.9%

      fewer than 10%

      DOM.

      REP.

      HAITI

      JAMAICA

      PUERTO

      RICO

      BELIZE

      GUATEMALA

       EL SALVADOR

      HONDURAS

       NICARAGUA

      COSTA RICA

      PANAMA

       GUADELOUPE

       DOMINICA

      MARTINIQUE

      BARBADOS

      ST VINCENT & GREN.

      ANT. & BARB.

       ST LUCIA

      GRENADA

      TR. & TOBAGO

      ST KITTS & NEVIS

      GUYANA

      VENEZUELA

      COLOMBIA

      SURINAME

       FRENCH GUIANA

      ECUADOR

      PERU

      BRAZIL

      175m

      BOLIVIA

      PARAGUAY

      ARGENTINA

      CHILE

      URUGUAY

      FALKLAND IS.

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