For 2020, Gordon-Conwell finds 207 million more Buddhists than Pew and about half as many nonreligious
Source. Pew Research Center, Religious Composition by Country, 2010–2020; Gordon-Conwell, Status of Global Christianity, 2025 (World Christian Database), 1900–2050.
Method and data
Method. “Unaffiliated or nonreligious” compares Pew’s religiously unaffiliated with Gordon-Conwell’s agnostics plus atheists. Gordon-Conwell also counts 453 million Chinese folk-religionists in 2020, a category Pew does not report separately.
| Group | Pew, 2020 | Gordon-Conwell, 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Christians | 2,268,860,000 | 2,519,505,000 |
| Muslims | 2,022,590,000 | 1,897,880,000 |
| Hindus | 1,177,860,000 | 1,090,611,000 |
| Buddhists | 324,190,000 | 531,050,000 |
| Jews | 14,780,000 | 14,800,000 |
| Unaffiliated or nonreligious | 1,905,360,000 | 898,183,000 |
