Culture
The World’s Most Popular Religions
See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.
The World’s Most Popular Religions
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Religion has played a pivotal role in shaping the beliefs, values, and cultures of societies around the world.
While estimating the exact number of followers for each faith poses a considerable challenge, figures from reputable sources like Britannica and Pew Research provide valuable insights into the global religious landscape.
The Religions With the Most Followers
Below are the seven most popular religions, based on Britannica’s analysis and estimates:
| Rank | Religion | Estimated number of followers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christianity | 2,200,000,000 |
| 2 | Islam | 1,800,000,000 |
| 3 | Hinduism | 1,100,000,000 |
| 4 | Buddhism | 500,000,000 |
| 5 | Shinto | 104,000,000 |
| 6 | Sikhism | 25,000,000 |
| 7 | Judaism | 14,000,000 |
Note: These estimates provide a broad perspective on the distribution of followers for each religion, recognizing the inherent difficulty in accurately counting global adherents.
There are three major religions with over 1 billion followers: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.
Buddhism is also a big player, with 500 million followers worldwide. After this, there’s a significant dropoff, with the next three largest religions (Shintō, Sikhism, and Judaism) adding up to fewer than 150 million followers between them.
It’s also worth mentioning that practically speaking, many of these popular religions have various sects, denominations, branches, or interpretations that they can be further grouped into.
For example, Christianity itself can be further categorized into denominations such as Catholic (50.1%), Protestant (36.7%), Eastern Orthodox (9.4%), Oriental Orthodox (2.5%), and other smaller Christian denominations (1.3%).
What Religions Missed the Cut?
Not captured in the above visual are many smaller organized religions, as well as folk and traditional religions, that are distributed all around the world.
Examples of notable religions that did not make the top seven list include: Taoism, Muism, Cao Dai, Baháʼí Faith, Jainism, Tenrikyo, Wicca, and Zoroastrianism.
Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of people also practice African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions, and Australian aboriginal religions.
Brands
How Tech Logos Have Evolved Over Time
From complete overhauls to more subtle tweaks, these tech logos have had quite a journey. Featuring: Google, Apple, and more.
How Tech Logos Have Evolved Over Time
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
One would be hard-pressed to find a company that has never changed its logo. Granted, some brands—like Rolex, IBM, and Coca-Cola—tend to just have more minimalistic updates. But other companies undergo an entire identity change, thus necessitating a full overhaul.
In this graphic, we visualized the evolution of prominent tech companies’ logos over time. All of these brands ranked highly in a Q1 2024 YouGov study of America’s most famous tech brands. The logo changes are sourced from 1000logos.net.
How Many Times Has Google Changed Its Logo?
Google and Facebook share a 98% fame rating according to YouGov. But while Facebook’s rise was captured in The Social Network (2010), Google’s history tends to be a little less lionized in popular culture.
For example, Google was initially called “Backrub” because it analyzed “back links” to understand how important a website was. Since its founding, Google has undergone eight logo changes, finally settling on its current one in 2015.
| Company | Number of Logo Changes |
|---|---|
| 8 | |
| HP | 8 |
| Amazon | 6 |
| Microsoft | 6 |
| Samsung | 6 |
| Apple | 5* |
Note: *Includes color changes. Source: 1000Logos.net
Another fun origin story is Microsoft, which started off as Traf-O-Data, a traffic counter reading company that generated reports for traffic engineers. By 1975, the company was renamed. But it wasn’t until 2012 that Microsoft put the iconic Windows logo—still the most popular desktop operating system—alongside its name.
And then there’s Samsung, which started as a grocery trading store in 1938. Its pivot to electronics started in the 1970s with black and white television sets. For 55 years, the company kept some form of stars from its first logo, until 1993, when the iconic encircled blue Samsung logo debuted.
Finally, Apple’s first logo in 1976 featured Isaac Newton reading under a tree—moments before an apple fell on his head. Two years later, the iconic bitten apple logo would be designed at Steve Jobs’ behest, and it would take another two decades for it to go monochrome.
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