Religion in Asia

Asia is the largest and most populous continent and the birthplace of many religions including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism. All major religious traditions are practiced in the region and new forms are constantly emerging. Asia is noted for its diversity of culture. Thus, the religious demographics of Asia are diverse, with no single religion representing an absolute majority of the population. Notwithstanding, Islam is the largest religion in Asia, with approximately 1.3 billion adherents as of 2022. The second largest religion is Hinduism, with about 1.2 billion adherents on the continent. Since the 1970s, the Muslim and Christian share of the Asian population has grown considerably, with this growth projected to continue in the future. Asia is the birthplace of 11 major religions, whose written records include Judaism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and the Baha'i Faith. Abrahamic religions Judaism is the predominant religion in Israel (75.6%), which has a nominal Jewish population of about 6.1 million. Outside of Israel there are small diaspora communities of Jewish people living in Turkey (17,400), Azerbaijan (9,100), Iran (8,756), India (5,000) and Uzbekistan (4,000). Christianity in Asia Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Christ, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, called the Old Testament in Christianity, and chronicled in the New Testament which are brought together in the Christian Bible as canonical scripture. It is the world's largest religion with about 2.4 billion followers and is culturally and traditionally diverse. Christianity is a widespread minority religion in Asia with more than 286 million adherents according to Pew Research Center in 2010, and nearly 364 million according to Britannica Book of the Year 2014.