The main religion in Indonesia is Islam, with around 87% of the population identifying as Muslim, making it the country with the world's largest Muslim population, although Indonesia officially recognizes six religions, including Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. While Islam is dominant nationally, other faiths, like Hinduism (especially in Bali) and Christianity, are significant in different regions, reflecting Indonesia's religious diversity, protected by its constitution.
In the fourteenth century, traders from Arabia, Gujarat and China arrived in what is now Indonesia, seeking cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. They brought with them Islam, and as some settled on Java and Sumatra, the new religion gradually blended with local culture.
The world's smallest country i.e. Vatican City is the first country in the world where not a single Muslim lives. Vatican City is a religious and cultural place for the people of the Catholic community, the Pope, the leader of the Catholic Church worldwide, lives here.
Indonesia is about 87% Muslim and 11% Christian.
Roughly 242 million Muslims and 29 million Christians live in Indonesia, according to data released by the Ministry of Religious Affairs in 2022. The remaining Indonesians mostly identify as Hindu, Buddhist or Confucian.
About Christian persecution in Indonesia. Although Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, it has a history of religious toleration. According to the founding constitution, “The State shall be based upon the belief in the One and Only God,” but freedom of worship is guaranteed for all.
However, since 2017, citizens who do not identify with those religions have the option to leave that section blank on their identity card. Although there is no apostasy law preventing Indonesians from converting to any religion, Indonesia does not recognise agnosticism or atheism, and blasphemy is considered illegal.
Indonesia is home to the largest Christian community made up of converts from their former Islamic faith; according to various sources, since the mid and late 1960s, between two million and 2.5 million Muslims converted to Christianity.
In 2020, Indonesia recorded the largest population of Muslims worldwide, with around 239 million. This was followed with around 226.88 million Muslims in Pakistan and 213 million Muslims in India.
The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest surviving religion in the world, it is also described by the 19th century term Sanātana Dharma ( lit. 'eternal dharma'). Vaidika Dharma ( lit. 'Vedic dharma') and Arya Dharma are historical endonyms for Hinduism.
This document discusses countries that do not have any mosques. It mentions several European countries like Slovakia, Estonia, San Marino, Monaco, and Vatican City that do not have mosques, though they have Islamic centers or places for Muslims to pray.
The Quran emphasizes Jesus as a prophet, unique in creation, born out of a virgin, and messenger from God. He is usually referred to as Īsā ibn Maryam (Jesus son of Mary), al-Masih ibn Maryam (The Christ son of Mary), al-Masīḥ – and a few times in 23:50 and 43:57 as Ibn Maryam (Son of Mary).
About 87-90% of the world's Muslims are Sunni Muslims, making Sunni Islam the largest denomination, while the remaining 10-13% are primarily Shia Muslims, with other smaller groups comprising less than 1%. Sunnis follow the "prophetic tradition," believing in the leadership of the first four caliphs, whereas Shias believe leadership passed to Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law.
The Maldives is widely considered the only country with a 100% Muslim population, as its constitution mandates that citizenship requires adherence to Islam, making all citizens Muslim, though non-Muslim foreigners live there. Other nations like Morocco and Saudi Arabia have near 100% Muslim citizen populations but may have significant foreign worker communities, while countries like Afghanistan and Somalia are very close but not quite at 100%.
77% of new converts to Islam are from Christianity, whereas 19% were from non-religion. Meanwhile, among American-born Muslims who have left Islam, about 55% now identify with no religion, 22% identify as Christian, and another 21% identify with other faiths.
Historically, before the arrival and spread of Islam in the 15th century, and the spread of Christianity in the 19th century, the inhabitants of the land were either Hindu-Buddhists or practised indigenous faiths.
Judaism came first, with its origins dating back to Abraham (around 2000 BCE) and Moses (around 1200 BCE), making it the first Abrahamic monotheistic religion; Islam emerged much later, founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century CE, though Muslims believe their faith began with Adam and view figures like Abraham as early prophets. Therefore, Jews existed as a people and religious community centuries before Islam began.
Besides India, many nations have a significant Muslim population. But there is one country where there is not a single Muslim resident. Vatican City is the world's smallest independent country. Vatican City serves as a religious and cultural hub for the Catholic community.
Israel has the largest Jewish population in the world, with around 7.1 to 7.4 million Jews, making up nearly half of the global Jewish population, closely followed by the United States, which has the second-largest population, though estimates vary slightly, with some sources placing it slightly above or below Israel depending on the year and data. France, Canada, and the United Kingdom have the next largest Jewish communities in the world.
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in India. Growth rate of Muslims has been consistently higher than the growth rate of others, ever since the census data of independent India has been available. For example, during the 1991–2001 decade, Muslim growth rate was 29.5% (while others were 19.9%).
In Hitler's eyes, Christianity was a religion fit only for slaves; he detested its ethics in particular. Its teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle and the survival of the fittest.
Reasons the global Muslim population grew quickly
Based on data for the 2015-2020 period, we estimated a Muslim woman would have 2.9 children, on average, in her lifetime, compared with 2.2 children per non-Muslim woman. In 2020, the global median age for Muslims was nine years below the non-Muslim median (24 vs. 33).