The predominant religion of Laos is Theravada Buddhism. Buddhism was the state religion of the prerepublic kingdom of Laos, and the organization of the community of monks and novices, the clergy (sangha), paralleled the political hierarchy.
Theravada Buddhism is the largest religion in Laos. It is practiced by 66% of the population.
There are three major Churches in Laos: the Roman Catholic Church, the Lao Evangelical Church, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Laotian government repressed all activities of religion from 1975 to 1989.
Buddhism is the leading religion of the country, with 55% identifying as Buddhist. Confucianism and Taoism denote an ancient and profound Chinese influence. The first Portuguese missionaries arrived in Vietnam in the sixteenth century and today Catholics represent about 7% of the population.
Religious Demography. The U.S. government estimates the total population at 7.6 million (midyear 2021). According to the 2015 national census, 64.7 percent of the population is Buddhist, 1.7 percent is Christian, 31.4 percent report having no religion, and the remaining 2.1 percent belong to other religions.
Three of the world's major religions -- the monotheist traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- were all born in the Middle East and are all inextricably linked to one another.
In December 2021, the Department of Religious Affairs reported that the population is 92.5 percent Buddhist, 5.4 percent Muslim, and 1.2 percent Christian. Other groups include animists, Confucians, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, and Taoists. Most Buddhists incorporate Hindu and animist practices into their worship.
According to the MCR, approximately 93 percent of the population is Buddhist, 95 percent of whom practice Theravada Buddhism, with an estimated 4,400 monastic temples throughout the country. The remaining 7 percent of the population includes Christians, Muslims, animists, Baha'is, Jews, and Cao Dai adherents.
National surveys conducted in the early 21st century estimated that some 80% of the population of China, which is more than a billion people, practice some kind of Chinese folk religion; 13–16% are Buddhists; 10% are Taoist; 2.53% are Christians; and 0.83% are Muslims.
The country where the membership of the church is the largest percentage of the population is Vatican City at 100%, followed by East Timor at 97%.
The Philippines proudly boasts to be the only Christian nation in Asia. More than 86 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, 6 percent belong to various nationalized Christian cults, and another 2 percent belong to well over 100 Protestant denominations.
The ten nations with the most number of Catholics behind Brazil are Mexico, the Philippines, the United States, Italy, France, Colombia, Poland, Spain, Argentina, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, this list changes a bit when you look at the total percentage of a nation that practices Catholicism.
The dominant religion among Papua New Guinea's population is Christianity (95.6%), followed by indigenous beliefs (3.3%). Within the Papua New Guinean-born population in Australia, the 2011 census identified most as Christian, with 32.1% identifying as Catholic, 12.3% as Anglican and 10.8% as Uniting Church.
Contemporary Taiwan is predominantly a mixture of Buddhist and Taoist, with 93% of the population identifying with these traditions. Only 4.5% identified as Christian.
As of the 2020 Population and Housing Census, 63.5 percent of the population practices Islam; 18.7 percent Buddhism; 9.1 percent Christianity; 6.1 percent Hinduism; and 2.7 percent other religion or gave no information.
Nearly 90% of the country is Buddhist, and most are members of the majority ethnic community known as Burmans. Ethnic minorities—such as the Chin, Kachin, Karin, and Rohingya—include significant populations of Christians and Muslims.
Religion in Indonesia
The Indonesian government recognises six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Muslims are a large majority (85%), with almost all practicing the Sunni branch of Islam. Protestants make up about 6.5% of the population and are well established in Papua.
Shinto (literally “the way of the gods”) is Japan's native belief system and predates historical records. The many practices, attitudes, and institutions that have developed to make up Shinto revolve around the Japanese land and seasons and their relation with the human inhabitants.
Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are considered the “three pillars” of ancient Chinese society.
World religions is a category used in the study of religion to demarcate the five—and in some cases more—largest and most internationally widespread religious movements. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism are always included in the list, being known as the "Big Five".
Hinduism, with an estimated 1.1 billion followers, is the world's third largest religion and also one of the oldest, with beliefs and practices that date back at least as far as the 1500s BCE.