there were about 900 million Hindus in the world in 2005. The 2001 Census of India estimates the number of Hindus in India to be about 827 million, or 80% of India's total population.
Hinduism commands the adherence of approximately 850 million people in the world. Thus every 7Th human being is a Hindu. This makes Hinduism the third largest religion in the world, after Christianity (approx. 2 billion) and Islam (1.3 billion). These figures certainly give the impression that Hinduism is a world religion. However, a look at the geographical spread of Hindus (Table 1) shows that the impression is deceptive:
Country Approximate Percentage of
Total Hindu Population Number of Hindus in Millions
India 82 800
Nepal 89 19.69
Sri Lanka 15 2.67
Bangladesh 11 16
Bhutan 20 0.17
Pakistan 1.3 2.2
Malaysia 7.1 1.2
Indonesia 2.3 3.8
Singapore 6 0.09
Vietnam - 0.05
Hong Kong <1.0 0.04
Burma 2.0 0.24
South Africa 2 0.7
Mauritius 50.6 0.58
Kenya, Uganda <1.0 0.2
Kuwait, Oman, UAE 15 0.17
Fiji 41 0.3
Trinidad and Tobago30 24 0.36
Guyana29 38 0.25
Surinam30 30 0.1
Jamaica30 3
Canada 0.5 0.22
USA 0.4 1
UK 0.5 0.4
Netherlands 1 0.16
At a level of 1.2 billion, they represent about 22% of the world's population. They are the second largest religion in the world. Only Christianity is larger, with 33% of the world's inhabitants.
Islam is growing about 2.9% per year. This is faster than the total world population which increases about 2.3% annually. It is thus attracting a progressively larger percentage of the world's population.
how many of Hindus are in the world?
