Major religious groups as a percentage of the world population in 2005 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). In summary, religious adherence of the world's population is as follows: "Abrahamic": 53.5%, "Indian": 19.7%, irreligious: 14.3%, "Far Eastern": 6.5%, tribal religions: 4.0%, new religious movements: 2.0%.

Predominant religions of the world, mapped by state

Map showing the prevalence of "Abrahamic" (purple), and "Indian" (yellow) religions in each country.

Map showing the relative proportion of Christianity (red) versus Muslims (green) in each country. The world's principal religions and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups or world religions: the vast majority of religious and spiritual adherents follow one of Christianity (33% of world population), Islam (20%), Hinduism (13%), Chinese folk religion (6%) or Buddhism (5%). These spiritual traditions may be either combined into larger super-groups, or into smaller sub-denominations. Christianity, Islam and Judaism (and sometimes the Bahá'í Faith) are sometimes summarized as Abrahamic religions. Hinduism, Buddhism (including Vajrayana, Mahayana and Theravada), Sikhism and Jainism are classified as Dharmic religions. Chinese folk religion, Taoism, Shinto, are classified as Far Eastern religions. Conversely, the major spiritual traditions may be parsed into denominations: Christianity into Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Oriental Orthodoxy and Nestorianism (see Christian denominations) Islam into Sunnism, Shi'ism, Sufism and Kharijites (see divisions of Islam) Hinduism into Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, Smartha and others (see Hindu denominations) Buddhism into Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana (see Schools of Buddhism). About 4% of world population follow indigenous tribal religions. About 12% of world population are irreligious. For a more comprehensive list of religions and an outline of some of their basic relationships, please see the article list of religions.