Home / Lifestyle / Singapore Leads World in Religious Diversity Study
Singapore Leads World in Religious Diversity Study
14 Feb
Summary
- Singapore ranks as the most religiously diverse nation globally.
- Muslims are the fastest-growing major religion worldwide.
- Buddhists are the only major faith group declining in numbers.
A recent study by the Pew Research Center has named Singapore the world's most religiously diverse country. This finding is based on the Religious Diversity Index (RDI), which measures the evenness of population distribution across seven major faith categories.
Globally, the religious landscape is evolving. Christians remain the largest group but are a decreasing share of the population. Muslims are growing rapidly, adding 347 million people in the past decade. Hindus have remained steady in their global share. Notably, Buddhists are the only major religion to experience an absolute decline in numbers.
The study also identified countries with very low religious diversity, such as Yemen, Afghanistan, and Somalia, where Muslims constitute over 99.8% of the population. The Asia-Pacific region emerged as the most religiously varied overall. The research synthesized data from over 2,700 censuses and surveys for its 2025 report.
Singapore achieved an RDI score of 9.3. Its population includes Buddhists (31%), religiously unaffiliated (20%), Christians (19%), Muslims (16%), Hindus (5%), and adherents of other religions (9%), with no single group forming a majority. France, while in the top 10, scored 6.9, reflecting a different diversity profile.
