Religions of Asia

Last reviewed on 2026-04-28.

Every one of the world’s major religions either began in Asia or took its modern shape there. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and the East-Asian traditions of Shinto, Taoism, and Confucianism all trace their roots to specific Asian regions, and most still have their largest populations on the continent. This page surveys the major religions of Asia by where they began, where they are concentrated today, and how they tend to coexist with each other — with links to the country profiles that carry the underlying numbers.

The four originating regions

It helps to think of the religious geography of Asia as four overlapping zones. The Levant, in West Asia, is the cradle of the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Indian subcontinent is the cradle of the Indic religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. The Iranian plateau is the cradle of Zoroastrianism, an old monotheistic religion that survives today in much smaller numbers. East Asia is the home of the Chinese religious-philosophical traditions of Taoism and Confucianism, the Japanese tradition of Shinto, and the form of Buddhism that became dominant after travelling east along the Silk Road. None of these zones is sealed off; the most striking feature of Asian religion is how often it crosses the lines between them.

Islam

Islam is the most widely practised religion in Asia by country count. Beginning in the early seventh century in what is now Saudi Arabia, it spread west across the Arab world, north into the Caucasus and Central Asia, and east along trade routes to South and Southeast Asia. Today the country with the largest Muslim population in the world is Indonesia. Islam is the dominant religion of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen. The major split is between Sunni Islam, which is the majority across most of the Muslim world, and Shia Islam, which is the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan.

Hinduism

Hinduism is the oldest of the religions still widely practised today and is concentrated overwhelmingly in India, where it is the religion of about four-fifths of the population, and in Nepal. There are also significant Hindu populations in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Malaysia, and the Indonesian island of Bali is mostly Hindu. Hinduism is less a single doctrine than a family of related traditions sharing a body of sacred texts (the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Bhagavad Gita) and overlapping ideas about karma, dharma, and the cycle of rebirth.

Buddhism

Buddhism began in the foothills of the Himalayas in what is now Nepal and northern India in the fifth century BCE. It is unusual in that, although it originated in South Asia, its centre of gravity is now further east. Today Buddhism is the dominant religion of Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, and a major religion in Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Buddhism splits broadly into Theravada (the older school, dominant in mainland Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka), Mahayana (dominant in East Asia and Vietnam), and Vajrayana (dominant in Tibet, Bhutan, and Mongolia).

Christianity

Christianity began in the Levant in the first century and spread west to become the majority religion of Europe, but several Asian countries have substantial Christian populations. The Philippines and Timor-Leste are majority-Christian, both as legacies of European colonial rule. Armenia and Georgia are historically Orthodox Christian and were among the earliest states to adopt Christianity. Cyprus is majority Greek Orthodox, with a Muslim Turkish-Cypriot minority. Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq all have ancient Christian communities of varying sizes. South Korea has a large Christian population alongside its Buddhists and the irreligious.

Judaism

Judaism is the smallest of the three Abrahamic religions by global numbers and is concentrated in Israel, the only country in Asia with a Jewish majority. Smaller Jewish communities live in several other Asian countries, although most of the historic Jewish populations of West Asia and the Iranian plateau emigrated during the twentieth century.

Sikhism, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism

Sikhism, founded in the Punjab region in the late fifteenth century, is the religion of about two per cent of India’s population, concentrated in the modern state of Punjab. Jainism, even older, has a smaller but influential following in western India. Zoroastrianism, once the dominant religion of pre-Islamic Iran, survives today as a small minority in Iran and among the Parsi community of western India.

Chinese folk religion, Taoism, and Confucianism

The religious life of China, Taiwan, and Chinese-heritage communities in Singapore and elsewhere mixes several distinct traditions. Buddhism, originally Indian, became thoroughly localised. Taoism, indigenous to China, focuses on living in accordance with the Tao (the “way”) and shaped Chinese ideas about medicine, meditation, and ritual. Confucianism, often classed as a philosophy rather than a religion, sets out a system of ethics and social organisation around family, hierarchy, and education that has had a deep influence on the cultures of China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. Most Chinese folk practice is syncretic: a household altar may combine ancestors, Buddhist figures, Taoist deities, and locally specific spirits without contradiction.

Shinto

Shinto is the indigenous religious tradition of Japan, organised around the worship of kami — spirits associated with natural features, ancestors, and specific places. Most Japanese people participate in Shinto rituals (shrine visits at New Year, weddings, festivals) alongside Buddhist ones (funerals, memorial services). The two traditions have coexisted in Japan for more than a thousand years, and many Japanese describe themselves as belonging to both.

Where the secular and the religious overlap

Several Asian countries are formally secular but have a single dominant religion in practice. Turkey is constitutionally secular but overwhelmingly Muslim. India is constitutionally secular but predominantly Hindu. Japan is highly secular in everyday speech but most of the population participates in religious ritual at major life events. By contrast, a few countries are explicitly religious: Iran is an Islamic Republic; the Maldives requires citizens to be Muslim; Saudi Arabia takes its legitimacy in part from custodianship of the holy cities of Islam.

Religion and language — an aside

Religious and linguistic boundaries in Asia rarely line up neatly. Speakers of related languages can practise different religions (Bengali speakers in India are mostly Hindu; Bengali speakers in Bangladesh are mostly Muslim), and speakers of unrelated languages can share a religion (Buddhism unites speakers of Sinhala, Burmese, Thai, Lao, Khmer, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Japanese). For the parallel breakdown by language family, see Languages of Asia.

To see how each country combines its religious traditions on the ground, follow the country links above or browse by region: South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia. The “Religions” data overlay on the main Asia map shows the dominant religion in each country at a glance.