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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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