World Religion Database

The World Religion Database (WRD), hosted at Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs (CURA), contains detailed statistics on religious affiliation for every country of the world. It provides information from country censuses as well as best estimates for every religion to offer a definitive picture of religion and non-religion in the past, present, and future.

The WRD offers best estimates at multiple dates for each of the world’s religions (18 categories, including atheists and agnostics) for the period 1900 to 2050. The WRD will be updated with new information as it becomes available, such as estimates of religious affiliation at the province level within countries and religious freedom information for all countries.

Dr. Gina A. Zurlo and Grace Zhao from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity are the Data Analysts for this program.

Dr. Gina A. Zurlo Dr. Gina A. Zurlo (PhD, Boston University) is Editor of the World Religion Database and Visiting Scholar at Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs. Her research focuses on the demography of religion, sociology of religion, World Christianity, and women’s studies. Her most recent books include Global Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe (Zondervan Academic, 2022), Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023), and From Nairobi to the World: David B. Barrett and the Re-Imagining of World Christianity (Brill, 2023). She was named one of the BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019 for her work in quantifying the religious future. She is a Yang Visiting Scholar of World Christianity at Harvard Divinity School in 2023–2024.

Grace Zhao Grace works as a research assistant and data analyst at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. She holds a B.S. in mathematics and a B.A. in music from Gordon College. She is passionate about programming in R, data visualizations and open source. While not working, she likes taking walks, listening to jazz, and learning about sharks.