PopAtlas

This analysis highlights countries with very large populations where a single religious tradition accounts for a dominant share of the population, while only a limited number of languages are spoken by large groups of people.

Country	Population	Dominant religion	Major languages
China	1,416,096,000	Unaffiliated 89.6%	Mandarin Chinese — 1,110,000,000 speakers (official) Wu Chinese — 80,000,000 speakers English — 10,000,000 speakers
Indonesia	285,721,000	Islam 87.0%	Indonesian — 268,000,000 speakers (official) Javanese — 84,000,000 speakers English — 10,000,000 speakers
Pakistan	255,219,000	Islam 96.5%	Panjabi — 108,000,000 speakers Urdu — 82,000,000 speakers (official) Sindhi — 25,000,000 speakers
Brazil	212,812,000	Christianity 80.7%	Portuguese — 193,000,000 speakers (official) Spanish — 1,500,000 speakers English — 1,000,000 speakers
Bangladesh	175,686,000	Islam 91.1%	Bengali — 130,000,000 speakers (official) English — 10,000,000 speakers Hindi — 500,000 speakers
Mexico	131,946,000	Christianity 89.2%	Spanish — 121,300,000 speakers (official) English — 1,100,000 speakers
Egypt	118,365,000	Islam 95.2%	Arabic — 97,000,000 speakers (official) English — 5,000,000 speakers French — 1,000,000 speakers
Philippines	116,786,000	Christianity 91.5%	Filipino — 100,000,000 speakers (official) English — 95,000,000 speakers (official) Cebuano — 20,000,000 speakers
Democratic Republic of the Congo	112,832,000	Christianity 96.3%	French — 24,000,000 speakers (official) Lingala — 15,000,000 speakers Swahili (macrolanguage) — 10,000,000 speakers
Iran (Islamic Republic of)	92,417,000	Islam 99.8%	Persian — 77,000,000 speakers (official) Azerbaijani — 10,000,000 speakers Kurdish — 3,000,000 speakers
Türkiye	87,685,000	Islam 97.1%	Turkish — 75,000,000 speakers (official) Kurdish — 15,000,000 speakers Arabic — 1,000,000 speakers
Thailand	71,619,000	Buddhism 94.4%	Thai — 63,000,000 speakers (official) English — 5,000,000 speakers Chinese — 1,000,000 speakers
South Africa	64,747,000	Christianity 85.3%	Zulu — 12,000,000 speakers (official) Xhosa — 8,000,000 speakers (official) Afrikaans — 6,000,000 speakers (official)
Italy	59,146,000	Christianity 80.5%	Italian — 58,000,000 speakers (official) English — 5,000,000 speakers French — 1,000,000 speakers
Kenya	57,532,000	Christianity 85.7%	Swahili (macrolanguage) — 49,000,000 speakers (official) Kikuyu — 7,000,000 speakers English — 4,000,000 speakers (official)
Myanmar	54,850,000	Buddhism 89.1%	Burmese — 32,000,000 speakers (official) English — 1,000,000 speakers Shan — 500,000 speakers
Colombia	53,425,000	Christianity 86.3%	Spanish — 48,000,000 speakers (official) English — 1,000,000 speakers
Sudan	51,662,000	Islam 98.9%	Arabic — 30,000,000 speakers (official) English — 5,000,000 speakers (official) Dinka — 2,000,000 speakers
Uganda	51,384,000	Christianity 87.7%	Ganda — 5,000,000 speakers English — 4,000,000 speakers (official) Swahili (macrolanguage) — 3,000,000 speakers (official)

Methodology: Countries are included if their population exceeds 50 million and if one religious tradition accounts for at least 80% of the population. Languages are shown by estimated number of speakers.