Wikipedia

Baháʼí Faith by country

The Baháʼí Faith formed in the mid-19th century in the Iran (Middle East), later gaining converts in India, East Africa, and the Western world. The Bahá'í Faith is established in more than 100,000 localities in virtually every country and territory around the world. Traveling promoters of the religion played a significant role in spreading the religion into most countries and territories during the second half of the 20th century,[1] mostly seeded out of North America by the planned migration of individuals.[2] The Baháʼí Faith was recognized as having a widespread international membership by the 1980s. [3][4] Author Denis MacEoin asserted in 2000 that Baháʼí Faith was the second-most geographically widespread religion after Christianity.[5]

The Baháʼí World Centre estimated over a million Bahá'ís in 1965,[6] 5 million in 1991,[7] and about 8 million in 2020.[8] The official agencies of the religion have focused on publishing data such as numbers of local and national spiritual assemblies, countries and territories represented, languages and tribes represented, schools, and publishing trusts, not the total number of believers.[9][10]

Analyzing Baháʼí data on localities and activity levels, Danish sociologist Margit Warburg suggested that by 2001, registered Baháʼís reliably numbered over 5 million.[11] Other independent estimates, such as Encyclopædia Britannica in 2010,[12] and the World Christian Encyclopedia in 2001,[13] listed Baháʼís and sympathizers[a] as over 7 million. The Baháʼí Faith was described in 2013 as the fastest growing religion by percentage across the 20th century.[14]

The number of Baháʼí adherents is difficult to estimate accurately. Few national Baháʼí communities have the administrative capacity to enumerate their members[15] and Baháʼí membership data does not break out active participation from the total number of people who have expressed their belief. Due to its small size, few censuses or religious surveys include the Baháʼí Faith as a separate category[b][17] and some government censuses count Baháʼís as Muslims or Hindus.[18] Country-level detail from the World Christian Encyclopedia (WCE), on which many estimates rely, counts declared Baháʼís along with sympathizers, leading to much higher counts than those of self-identifying Baháʼís.[19][20]

Difficulties in enumeration

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The fact that the religion is diffuse and proportionally small is a major barrier to demographic research by outsiders. Even in the United States, where significant resources are dedicated to gathering data, the Baháʼí Faith is often omitted from religious surveys due to the high sample size required to reduce the margin of error.[16] In the Middle East, especially Iran, Baháʼís face persecution, and the lack of Baháʼí administration makes it difficult to maintain a count.

Baháʼí authors Peter Smith and Moojan Momen, commenting on the difficulties of counting Baháʼís, wrote the following:

With any religious movement there are invariable problems of quantification unless the movement's own enumeration techniques are exceptionally efficient, or government censuses incorporate questions on religion. Even here there are often considerable problems of definition. Are gradations of commitment to be taken into consideration so as to differentiate between active and nominal members? Are the children of members to be included as well as adults? Is allowance to be made for the pattern of multi-religious adherence which is common in many parts of the world? These are, of course, problems that affect the estimation of numbers for any religion and are not confined to Bahá'í statistics.

— Smith & Momen, "The Bahá'í Faith 1957-1988: A Survey of Contemporary Developments", Religion (1989)[21]

Definition of membership

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Throughout the early development of the Baháʼí Faith in Iran and the West, Baháʼís often retained some of the religious identity that they converted from, many remaining members of churches and mosques. Later, Shoghi Effendi made it clear that the Baháʼí Faith was its own tradition with laws and institutions, and that Baháʼís could not remain members of other religions. The practice of maintaining membership rolls of believers began in the 1920s.[22]

In the 1930s the Baháʼís of the United States and Canada began requiring new adherents to sign a declaration of faith, stating their belief in Baháʼu'lláh, the Báb, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and affirming that there are laws and institutions to obey. The original purpose of signing a declaration card was to allow followers to apply for lawful exemption from active military service.[23] The signature of a card later became optional in Canada, but in the US is still used for records and administrative requirements.[24]

All local and national Spiritual Assemblies are expected to keep membership records that include declarations of faith and withdrawals, which are used for annual assembly elections.[25] The Baháʼí system of membership thus has a system of contracting into the religion and some maintenance of the membership list is required for community functioning. Being removed from membership requires an opposite declaration of disbelief.[citation needed][26]

Children

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A peculiar difficulty arises in counting Baháʼís because a tenet of the faith is that parents cannot choose the religion of their children and that 15 is the age of spiritual maturity when an individual can make the choice.[27] Early membership rolls excluded children of Baháʼís and didn't even count them separately.[21] In 1979 the Universal House of Justice requested that children be included separately for statistical purposes, matching the methodology of most censuses and surveys. Before that, membership rolls may have only indicated ages 21 or older (the age required for voting).[28]

The change toward including children in statistics caused an increase in the total number of reported Baháʼís in the late 1980s, but has been consistent since.[29]

Active vs inactive

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Another difficulty arises from defining membership based on participation. The number of active participants in any religious movement will always be smaller than the number who profess belief. The prevailing norm in the Western world is that members of minority religious groups must be actively participating to be considered a member, and members of majority religious groups have a large number of passive adherents.[29] Margit Warburg wrote,

As with other voluntary organisations, some members become more active than others, but the fact that there is no fixed membership subscription means that there is no economic motive for inactive Baháʼís to take the initiative to resign membership. Inactive Baháʼís, however, are not expelled just because they are inactive in community life, since in principle they could still be believing Baháʼís.[30]

Warburg also noted: "Baháʼís do not lose membership status just by being inactive."[29]

In the 1980s the Baháʼís of the United States started including “address unknown” in their membership statistics; members designated as such may profess belief but are no longer participating in community life.[21] For example, in its 2020 Annual Report the US National Spiritual Assembly had 177,647 registered Baháʼís of all ages, only 77,290 of which had good addresses, and 57,341 total participants in core activities, with 37% of attendees from outside of the Baháʼí population.[31] The higher American number has been challenged because it includes some who no longer believe, but the lower number with good addresses does not include inactive Baháʼís who continue their belief.[32] As author William Garlington noted,

Just as there are many people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ and yet are not official members of an established church, it seems fair to assume that there are a sizable number of individuals who identify with Baha'u'llah and his principles while remaining outside the established institutions of the Baha'i Faith... the significant point is that at least [the registered Baha'is] have experienced enough identity with the Baha'i teachings to have made official written declarations of that belief.[33]

Using activity data, Warburg estimated a percentage of activity in Baháʼí communities around the world and concluded that in 2001 there were reliably 5.1 million registered Baháʼís in the world and 900,000 active Baháʼís, or 18% of the total. The estimates on activity were broken out by continent: Europe 82% active, USA and Canada 71%, Australia and New Zealand 91%, Africa 22%, India 5%, Other Asia 26%, Latin America 13%, and Oceania 43%.[34] On the question of whether the Baháʼí numbers are intentionally inflated, Warburg feels that the “numbers are not rooted in any sinister manipulation of data”.[29]

Number of Baháʼís worldwide

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Baháʼí sources

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  • In 2020, the Secretariat of the Universal House of Justice wrote, "on the basis of information received from Baháʼí communities across the world, and on reputable external sources", the current estimate for the number of Baháʼís worldwide is "about eight million", and Baháʼís reside in "well over 100,000 localities".[8]
  • A 1997 statement by the NSA of South Africa wrote: "…the Baháʼí Faith enjoys a world-wide following in excess of six million people."[35]
  • As early as 1991 official estimates were of "more than five million Baháʼís",[7] which was still in use as of 2020.[9]
  • In 1989, the journal Religion published an article by Baháʼí authors Moojan Momen and Peter Smith. They observed that in the 1950s there were "probably in the region of 200,000 Baháʼís world-wide. The vast majority of these (over 90%) lived in Iran. There were probably fewer than 10,000 Baháʼís in the West and no more than 3,000 Baháʼís in the Third World, mostly India".[15] By the end of the 1960s, they wrote, "we 'guestimate' that there may now have been about one million Baháʼís." And by 1988 they estimated about 4.5 million.[36]
  • A 1987 report, published in the United States Baháʼí News reported 3.62 million Baháʼís in 1979 and 4.74 million Baháʼís in 1986, a growth of 31% over the period, or 4.4% per year on average.[37]
  • The document The Promise of World Peace, produced by the Universal House of Justice in 1985, stated that the Bahá’í community has "some three to four million people".[38]
  • Baháʼí author Moojan Momen wrote in 2008, "In the early 1950s, there were probably some 200,000 Baháʼís in the world. This has increased to about a million by the late 1960s, about four and a half million by the late 1980s, and over five million by 2000s."[39]
  • The first known survey of the religion comes from an unpublished work in 1919–1920 gathered by John Esslemont and had been intended to be part of his well-known Baháʼu'lláh and the New Era.[40] In it, consulting various individuals, he summarizes the religion's presence in Egypt, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Turkestan, and the United States. It did not arrive at a total but did have some regional statistics based on some individual reports.
  • In 1867, 53 Baháʼís from Baghdad sent an appeal to the American Consul in Beirut for assistance in freeing Bahá'u'lláh from Ottoman captivity. According to missionary Henry Harris Jessup, "The petitioners claim that they number 40,000."[41]

Other sources

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2010s and newer

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  • In 2020, the World Religion Database has estimated a worldwide Baháʼí population of 8,531,050.[42]
  • In 2017, The Economist reported that there were more than 7 million Baháʼís in the world.[43]
  • In 2016, the book 12 Major World Religions wrote, "Today it numbers at least 5 million adherents and possibly more."[44]
  • In 2015, the Yearbook of International Religious Demography noted just over 7.8 million Baháʼís in the world, having grown at an overall rate of 2.79% across the century 1910 to 2010.[45] The 10 countries with the largest Baháʼí populations were: India, United States, Kenya, Vietnam, DR Congo, Philippines, Zambia, South Africa, Iran and Bolivia, ranging from 232,000 to just over 2,000,000 in India.[46]
  • In 2013, the book The World's Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography wrote, "The Baha'i Faith is the only religion to have grown faster in every United Nations region over the past 100 years than the general population; Bahaʼi was thus the fastest-growing religion between 1910 and 2010, growing at least twice as fast as the population of almost every UN region."[14]
  • In 2011, Bei Dawei said in an academic conference presentation that the Baháʼí Faith had "several hundred thousand" adherents. He noted that "estimates of five, six, or seven million are more usually encountered" but said that these estimates are projections based on self-reporting by Baháʼís and that the national figures they are based on "tend to exceed apparent Bahá'í activity by whole orders of magnitude."[47]
  • In 2010, The World Religion Database stated that there were 7.3 million Baháʼís in the world.[48] The Association of Religion Data Archives cited this estimate.[49] Encyclopædia Britannica also estimated a total of 7.3 million Baháʼís residing in 221 countries.[12] Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices estimated 7.4 million Baháʼís,[50] citing UN median variant figures from World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision.

2000s

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  • In 2009, Paula Hartz wrote in World Religions: Baha'i Faith: "Today the Baha’i Faith has some 5 million followers. It is one of the world’s fastest-growing religions. It is also probably the most diverse."[51]
  • In 2007, The World Factbook states that Baháʼís make up 0.12% of the world, corresponding to 7.9 million people.[52]
  • In 2006, Margit Warburg’s academic book on the Baháʼí Faith claimed, “a conservative estimate would be that in 2001 there were about 5.1 million registered Baháʼís in the world.”[53]
  • In 2005, the Association of Religion Data Archives estimate is of 7.6 million,[54] which is also echoed elsewhere.[55] The Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition, records that: "In the early twenty-first century the Baháʼís number close to six million in more than two hundred countries. The number of adherents rose significantly in the late twentieth century from a little more than one million at the end of the 1960s."[56]
  • In 2004, the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa reported that "Baháʼís worldwide [are] estimated in 2001 at 5 million."[57]
  • In 2003, World Book Encyclopedia reported that "there are about 5,500,000 Baháʼís worldwide."[58]
  • In 2001, World Christian Encyclopedia (2nd edition, 2001) estimated 7.1 million adherents of the Baháʼí Faith in the year 2000 representing 0.1% of the world population. The same source projected 12 million in 2025 and 18 million in 2050, assuming then-current trends were to continue.[13] They also noted, "In government censuses Baháʼís are usually counted as Muslims or Hindus and not shown separately."[18]
  • In 2000, Encyclopædia Britannica estimated a total of 7.1 million Baháʼís residing in 218 countries.[59] Denis MacEoin wrote in the Handbook of Living Religions that:

"The movement has had remarkable success in establishing itself as a vigorous contender in the mission fields of Africa, India, parts of South America, and the Pacific, thus outstripping other new religions in a world-wide membership of perhaps 4 million and an international spread recently described as second only to that of Christianity. The place of Baha'ism among world religions now seems assured."[5]

1950 to 1999

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  • In 1998, the Academic American Encyclopedia said that the Baháʼís "are estimated to number about 2 million."[60]
  • In 1997, Dictionary of World Religions said that there are five million Baháʼís" in the world.[61] Religions of the World published: "today there are about 5 million" Baháʼís.[62]
  • In 1995, the HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion stated: "In 1985, it was estimated that there were between 1.5 to 2 million Baha'is, with the greatest areas of recent growth in Africa, India, and Vietnam."[63]
  • In 1993, the Columbia Encyclopedia published: "There are about 5 million Baháʼís in the world."[64]
  • In 1982, the World Christian Encyclopedia (1st edition, 1982) wrote of Baháʼí adherents in the world: “(1970) 2,659,400, (1980) 3,822,600 in 194 countries, (1985) 4,442,600.”[65]
  • Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices (2010) estimated 2.7 million Baháʼís in 1970, citing UN median variant figures from World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision.[50]
  • Paul Oliver wrote in World Faiths (2001) that there were "approximately five million Baháʼís" in 1963.[66]
  • Paula Hartz wrote in World Religions: Baha'i Faith (2009) that by the end of Shoghi Effendi's life in 1957, "the Baha'i Faith had reached more than 400,000 [adherents]."[67]

1900 to 1950

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During ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's tour of North America, several newspapers made claims of how large the religion was, with figures in the range of millions of people:

  • In 1912, a reporter in Salt Lake City claimed ʻAbdu'l-Bahá said the religion had "10,000,000 followers in the world."[73]
  • On June 16, 1912, a news report introduced him as the "Persian religious leader and spiritual and temporal head of the 14,000,000 of Baháʼís scattered throughout the world."[74]
  • On April 24, 1912, a newspaper article said "Baháʼísm now has 15,000,000 adherents scattered throughout the world, several hundred thousand of whom are in the United States and Canada."[75]
  • On April 12, 1912, a newspaper introduced him as "head of one of the newest and most thriving religions in the world, numbering 20,000,000 souls among his followers, of whom several hundred souls are in New York."[76]
  • On September 9, 1911, a news report about ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's visit to London claimed "at a moderate estimate, three million followers."[77]

Adherents by country

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See also: Category:Bahá'í Faith by country

Although the Baháʼí News Service has reported on the total number of Baháʼís in the world, the data is not broken out by country.[78]

The World Christian Encyclopedia (WCE), and its successor The World Christian Database (WCD), is an authority on membership data for religions in the world, and its decades-long study by David Barrett and co-workers is a basis for many other estimates of Baháʼís in the world, such as ARDA. The data were released in editions of 1982, 2001, and 2018, and includes a break down by country. The WCE data has consistently reported higher numbers of Baháʼís than the reports of Baháʼí institutions.[79][48] Danish researcher Margit Warburg studied Baháʼí membership data and feels that the WCE data is overstated for Baháʼís.[78] For instance, WCE reports an estimated 1,600 Baháʼís in Denmark in 1995 and 682,000 Baháʼís in the USA. The number of registered Baháʼís at the same time were 240 and 130,000, respectively.[78] Peter Smith found that the WCE data is meant to include "members plus those who regularly attend Baháʼí events, that is including a wider circle of sympathizers as well as declared Baháʼís".[8]

The Association for Religious Data Archives (ARDA) is "a collection of surveys, polls, and other data submitted by the foremost scholars and research centers in the world." It gathers data from, "the US Census Bureau's International Data Base, the US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report, the United Nations Human Development Reports, and others"[49] including World Christian Database.[80]

Baháʼí Faith by country
Country or territory Baháʼí sources WCE (1980)[81] WCE (2000)[82] ARDA (2010)[49][d] UNSD[83] Other sources
  Afghanistan (details) 600 23,075 16,541 400 (2007)[84]
  Albania (details) 14,024[citation needed] 5,711 7,126
  Algeria (details) 1,000 2,806 3,309
  American Samoa (details) 925 (2014)[85][e] 280 990
  Andorra (details) 110
  Angola (details) 600 1,488 2,061
  Anguilla (details) 50 86
  Antigua and Barbuda (details) 320 629 51 (2009)
  Argentina (details) 6,900 10,212 13,972
  Armenia (details) 1,331 1,190
  Aruba (details) 148
  Australia (details) 17,000[citation needed] 11,300 33,536 19,365 14,937 (2023) 8,947 (1996)[86]
11,036 (2001)[87]
12,331 (2006)[88]
13,988 (2016)[89]
  Austria (details) 2,120 3,780 1,948 760 (2001)
  Azerbaijan (details) 1,432 1,685
  Bahamas (details) 430 1,241 1,375 65 (2013)
  Bahrain (details) 500 1,379 2,832
  Bangladesh (details) 4,200 8,341 9,603
  Barbados (details) 400 (2010)[90] 1,440 3,522 3,337 98 (2016) 178 (2010)[91]
  Belarus (details) 106 100
  Belgium (details) 1,900 2,358 2,617
  Belize (details) 4,100 6,941 7,742 216 (2014) 202 (2010)[92]
  Benin (details) 5,400 13,074 11,637
  Bermuda (details) 120 325 124 (2011)
  Bhutan (details) 300 647 74
  Bolivia (details) 100,000 (1988)[93] 160,000 269,246 215,359
  Bosnia and Herzegovina (details) 0 0
  Botswana (details) 4,600 12,417 16,464 2,074 (2015) 700 (2001)[94]
  Brazil (details) 18,000 36,745 42,108
  British Virgin Islands (details) 90 192 10 (2016)
  Brunei (details) 710 981 199
  Bulgaria (details) 657 592
  Burkina Faso (details) 600[f] 2,767 2,860
  Burundi (details) 2,200 5,414 6,779
  Cambodia (details) 10,000[citation needed] 35,000 12,862 16,659
  Cameroon (details) 40,000[citation needed] 49,600 64,286 49,885
  Canada (details) 30,000[95] 40,000 31,396 46,826 18,975 (2022)
  Cape Verde (details) 200 655 759
  Cayman Islands (details) 80 336
  Central African Republic (details) 6,500 7,833 10,913
  Chad (details) 7,000 80,683 94,499
  Chile (details) 6,000 (2002)[96] 9,600 17,943 26,382
  People's Republic of China (details) 6,525 6,012
  Colombia (details) 30,000[citation needed] 38,000 64,758 70,504
  Comoros (details) 390 521 647
  Congo, Republic of (details) 6,200 12,927 25,879
  Congo, Democratic Republic of (details) 70,000[citation needed] 180,000 224,596 282,916
  Cook Islands (details) 160 161
  Costa Rica (details) 4,000[97] 8,400 11,571 13,457 3,000[98]
  Croatia (details) 150 (2006)[99] 0 0
  Cuba (details) 620 1,139 1,145
  Cyprus (details) 400 828 1,170
  Czech Republic (details) 950 966
  Denmark (details) 240 (1995)[78]
375 (2013)[100] 		1,400 1,785 1,264 1,600 (1995)[78]
  Djibouti (details) 140 552 769
  Dominica (details) 70 1,225
  Dominican Republic (details) 5,500 5,904 6,899
  East Timor (details) 300 1,190
  Ecuador (details) 27,000 15,599 17,820
  Egypt (details) 3,000 (1960)[101]
500 (1987)[101]
500 (2001)[102]
1,000-2,000 (2019)[103] 		1,500 5,760 6,946 2,000[104]
  El Salvador (details) 12,000 (1990)[105] 15,000 27,712 27,345
  Equatorial Guinea (details) 900 2,317 3,589
  Eritrea (details) 1,198 1,426
  Estonia (details) 459 496
  Eswatini (details) 11,000 4,516
  Ethiopia (details) 11,000 21,592 22,764
  Falkland Islands (details) 50 67 12 (2009)
  Faroe Islands (details) 50 124
  Fiji (details) 1,800 5,674 2,338
  Finland (details) 775 (2013)[100] 2,500 1,676 1,674 653 (2021)
  France (details) 5,000[citation needed] 3,700 4,136 4,453
  French Guiana (details) 500 725
  French Polynesia (details) 360 695
  Gabon (details) 300 405 605
  Gambia (details) 5,100 10,790 14,184
  Georgia (details) 1,725 1,639
  Germany (details) 6,000 (2019)[g] 11,500[h] 12,391 12,356 5,600 (2005)[107]
  Ghana (details) 10,000 12,146 14,106
  Greece (details) 300 611 189
  Greenland (details) 280 355
  Grenada (details) 160 145
  Guadeloupe (details) 640 1,595
  Guam (details) 800 1,863
  Guatemala (details) 7,000 20,073 19,898
  Guinea (details) 140 288 150
  Guinea-Bissau (details) 90 333 266
  Guyana (details) 110 (1969)
22,000 (1989)[108] 		2,700 14,584 11,787 500 (2002)[109]
800 (2019)[110]
  Haiti (details) 11,700 17,055 22,614
  Honduras (details) 11,600 32,635 37,591
  Hong Kong (details) 600 1,120
  Hungary (details) 100 246 290
  Iceland (details) 360 (2013)[100] 400 801 599
  India (details) 700 (1953)[111]
2,000,000 (2020)[112] 		1,050,000[i] 1,716,148 1,897,651 5,574 (1991)[113]
1,000,000 (1996)[114]
400,000 (1999)[114]
11,324 (2001)[115]
100,000 (2002)[116]
4,572 (2011)[117]
  Indonesia (details) 15,000 26,537 22,815
  Iran (details) 300,000 (1988)[118]
110,000 (2010)[119]
300,000 (2020)[9] 		340,000 463,151 251,127 300,000–350,000 (1979)[120]
150,000–300,000[121]
300,000 (2019)[122]
  Iraq (details) 2,000[123] 700 2,607 3,801
  Ireland (details) 900 1,274 1,550 520 (2012)
  Israel (details) 650[124] 600 13,734 11,705
  Italy (details) 4,600 5,681 5,108
  Ivory Coast (details) 6,000 22,289 30,321
  Jamaica (details) 4,000[125] 5,000 7,456 5,157 269 (2013)
  Japan (details) 12,500 15,579 15,594
  Jordan (details) 1,000 17,221 15,655
  Kazakhstan (details) 6,967
  Kenya (details) 25,000-40,000[126] 180,000 308,292 422,782
  Kiribati (details) 3,500 4,321 2,322 (2013)
  Korea, North (details) 0 0 0
  Korea, South (details) 200[127] 18,000 32,096 33,084
  Kuwait (details) 2,000 5,172 8,992
  Kyrgyzstan (details) 0 1,426
  Laos (details) 150 1,229 13,450 2,122 (2019)
  Latvia (details) 0 0
  Lebanon (details) 1,400 3,272 3,889
  Lesotho (details) 10,700 19,062 19,195
  Liberia (details) 5,000 8,955 11,231
  Libya (details) 300 560 636
  Liechtenstein (details) 60 107
  Lithuania (details) 0 267 29 (2014)
  Luxembourg (details) 1,400 1,546 1,597
  Macao (details) 130
  Madagascar (details) 5,600 15,270 18,347
  Malawi (details) 15,000 (2003)[128] 11,600 24,501 34,323
  Malaysia (details) 30,000 (1986)[129] 62,000 97,78 67,549
  Maldives (details) 25 60 120
  Mali (details) 640 1,030 1,244
  Malta (details) 140 255 274
  Marshall Islands (details) 1,023
  Martinique (details) 1,600 2,031
  Mauritania (details) 140 267 346
  Mauritius (details) 7,500[citation needed] 9,500 21,848 23,742 645 (2012)
  Mexico (details) 23,000 33,903 38,902
  Micronesia, Federated States of (details) 8,000[citation needed] 1,909
  Moldova (details) 0 526
  Monaco (details) 30 57
  Mongolia (details) 8,000-9,000 (2020)[130] 0 53 55
  Montenegro (details) 0
  Montserrat (details) 200
  Morocco (details) 350-400[131] 3,200 28,719 32,598
  Mozambique (details) 1,400 3,405 2,877
  Myanmar (details) 15,000 49,044 78,915
  Namibia (details) 500 8,864 10,995
  Nauru (details) 130 1,106
    Nepal (details) 4,000 6,163 4,366 537 (2023) 1,211 (2011)[132]
  Netherlands (details) 11 (1948)
110 (1962)
365 (1973)
525 (1979)[133] 		3,100 5,506 6,672
  New Caledonia (details) 570 932
  New Zealand (details) 3,200 3,878 7,518 2,634 (2013) 2,925 (2018)[134]
  Nicaragua (details) 4,000 9,616 10,918
  Niger (details) 1,100 2,978 5,528
  Nigeria (details) 21,000 27,031 38,190
  North Macedonia (details) 0 0
  Norway (details) 1,200 (2013)[100] 1,400 2,179 2,737 1,015 (2007)[135]
  Oman (details) 420 9,123 9,987
  Pakistan (details) 30,000 (2001)[136] 25,000 78,658 87,259 33,734 (2012)[137]
31,543 (2018)[138]
2,000-3,000 (2013)[139]
  Palau (details) 150 96 (2005)
  Panama (details) 20,000 35,318 41,170
  Papua New Guinea (details) 40,000 (2006)[140] 17,900 34,939 59,898
  Paraguay (details) 2,900 9,011 10,624
  Peru (details) 20,000 36,463 41,316
  Philippines (details) 64,000[citation needed] 115,000 229,522 275,069
  Poland (details) 504 766
  Portugal (details) 6,000[citation needed] 2,000 1,845 2,086
  Puerto Rico (details) 1,400 2,788 2,698
  Qatar (details) 420 985 2,717
  Réunion (details) 1,800 5,927
  Romania (details) 542 (1990)[141] 100 1,843 1,895
  Russia (details) 3,000[citation needed] 4,600[j] 16,586 19,338
  Rwanda (details) 4,000[142] 7,500 14,211 19,592
  Samoa (details) 925 (2014)[143][k] 3,300 4,178 817 (2018)
  São Tomé and Príncipe (details) 90 3,011 1,645[l]
  Saudi Arabia (details) 1,000 4,045 5,138
  Senegal (details) 3,200 16,804 23,883
  Serbia (details) 1,268
  Seychelles (details) 210 312 392 (2005)
  Sierra Leone (details) 1,150 11,385 13,765
  Singapore (details) 900 5,482 7,963
  Slovakia (details) 200[citation needed] 667 686 1,065 (2013)
  Slovenia (details) 297 396
  Solomon Islands (details) 800 1,903
  Somalia (details) 1,000 2,110[m] 2,677
  South Africa (details) 23,000 255,775 238,532 2,264 (2000)
  South Sudan (details)
  Spain (details) 4,500 13,647 13,528
  Sri Lanka (details) 9,700 15,489 15,502
  Sudan (details) 700 1,828 2,706
  Suriname (details) 5,000 6,424 3,591
  Sweden (details) 1,080 (2013)[144] 1,900 5,048 6,814
   Switzerland (details) 3,500 3,728 3,878
  Syria (details) 100 123 430
  Taiwan (details) 5,000 12,555 16,252
  Tajikistan (details) 743 3,092 1,000 (2018)[145]
  Tanzania (details) 35,000[citation needed] 60,000 140,593 190,419
  Thailand (details) 10,000 144,243 65,096
  Togo (details) 2,800 25,395 30,423
  Tonga (details) 1,700 6,582 730 (2023)
  Trinidad and Tobago (details) 8,000 15,627 15,973
  Tunisia (details) 520 1,917 2,096 150 (2001)[146]
  Turkey (details) 5,100 19,618 21,259
  Turkmenistan (details) 964 1,090
  Tuvalu (details) 400 580 177 (2007)
  Uganda (details) 105,000[147] 330,600 66,546 95,098 29,601 (2014)[148]
  Ukraine (details) 1,000[citation needed] 252 227
  United Arab Emirates (details) 1,400 55,214 38,364
  United Kingdom (details) 5,000 (1985)[149]
7,000 (2020)[150] 		15,600[n] 30,628 47,554 5,021 (2011)[151]
  United States (details) 1,500 (1899)[152]
1,200 (1906)[152]
100,000 (1988)[153]
130,000 (1995)[78]
177,647 (2020)[31]
[o] 		210,000 753,423 512,864 28,000 (1991)[154]
84,000 (2001)[154]
100,000 (2006)[155]
  United States Virgin Islands (details) 360 577
  Uruguay (details) 3,800 7,356 7,385
  Uzbekistan (details) 1,000[citation needed] 708 800
  Vanuatu (details) 160 5,418 3,293
  Venezuela (details) 1,218 (1965)[156]
20,000 (2000)[156] 		35,000 141,072 169,811
  Vietnam (details) 200,000 (<1975)
6,000 (2006)[157] 		220,000 356,133 388,802 3,000 (2019)[158]
  Western Sahara (details) 100 121
  Yemen (details) 250[citation needed] 480 1,000 1,328
  Zambia (details) 4,000 (2017)[159] 16,000 162,443 241,112 3,891 (2015)
  Zimbabwe (details) 1,000 (1971)
20,000 (1985)[160] 		14,500 37,077 39,893 35,000 (1995)[161]

Adherents by continent

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Further information: Baháʼí Faith in Africa, Baháʼí Faith in Asia, Baháʼí Faith in Europe, Baháʼí Faith in North America, Baháʼí Faith in Oceania, and Baháʼí Faith in South America

The following data comes from World Christian Encyclopedia (1st ed., 1982).[162]

Continent 1900 1970 1975 1980
Africa 225 695,094 847,795 1,024,440
East Asia 0 27,307 31,620 36,230
Europe 0 53,810 58,580 63,270
Latin America 0 298,350 376,070 462,100
Northern America 2,800 162,350 206,410 250,470
Oceania 0 29,355 38,640 48,115
South Asia 5,800 1,389,160 1,639,260 1,933,405
USSR 200 4,000 4,300 4,600
World[71] 9,025 2,659,426 3,202,675 3,822,630

The following data comes from World Christian Encyclopedia (2st ed., 2001).[163]

Continent 1900 1970 1990 1995 2000
Africa 225 698,094 1,383,320 1,546,330 1,732,816
Asia 5,900 1,411,530 2,811,995 3,034,140 3,475,167
Europe 210 56,810 106,635 120,275 129,706
Latin America 0 299,350 357,845 763,205 872,757
Northern America 2,800 162,350 628,675 712,335 785,587
Oceania 400 29,215 83,217 97,595 110,387
World[13] 9,535 2,657,349 5,671,687 6,273,880 7,106,420

In "The Baha'i Faith 1957–1988: A Survey of Contemporary Developments" (Religion: 1989), Baháʼí authors Momen and Smith provide the following estimates of the Baháʼís in the world over 3 decades, broken out by cultural areas. They derived numbers from, "calculation of approximate numbers from the number of Bahá'í organizations; extrapolating back from the official figures for the number of individual Bahá'ís provided more recently; estimates provided by informed Bahá'ís; and when the first draft of this paper was completed, a copy was sent to the Department of Statistics in Haifa and the present table incorporates some of the statistical information given in the reply to this, dated 8 July 1988."[1]

Cultural area 1954 1968 1988
Middle East and North Africa 200,000 250,000 300,000
North America, Europe & Anglo-Pacific 10,000 30,000 200,000
South Asia 1,000 300,000 1,900,000
South-east Asia 2,000 200,000 300,000
East Asia 10,000 20,000
Latin America & the Caribbean 100,000 700,000
Africa (sub-Saharan) 200,000 1,000,000
Oceania (excluding Anglo-Pacific) 5,000 70,000
World 213,000 1,095,000 4,490,000

Other statistics from Baháʼí sources

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1928[164] 1949[164] 1968[10] 1986[10] 2001 2006[165]
National Spiritual Assemblies 7 11 81 165 182 179
Local Spiritual Assemblies 102 595 6,840 18,232 11,740[166]
Countries where the Baháʼí Faith is established:
independent countries		 36 92 187 191
Localities where Baháʼís reside 573 2315 31,572 >116,000 127,381[10]
Indigenous tribes, races,
and ethnic groups		 1,179 >2,100 2,112
Languages into which Baháʼí literature is translated 417 800
Baháʼí Publishing Trusts 9 26 33[10]
Year 1923 1936 1953 1963 1973 1979 1988 2008
National Spiritual Assemblies[167][168][169] 3 10 12 56 113 125 148 184

See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Peter Smith found that the World Christian Encyclopedia, which consistently gave estimates higher than registered Baháʼís, is meant to include "members plus those who regularly attend Baháʼí events, that is including a wider circle of sympathizers as well as declared Baháʼís".[8]
  2. ^ In 2012 the Pew Research Center published a report on the Global Religious Landscape. Baháʼís were grouped into the category "Other Religions" together with Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and various others. The report said, "Because of the lack of data on these faiths in many countries, the Pew Forum has not attempted to estimate the size of individual religions within this category..." It also noted: "Although some faiths in the 'other religions' category have millions of adherents around the world, censuses and surveys in many countries do not measure them specifically. Estimates of the global size of these faiths generally come from other sources, such as the religious groups themselves."[16]
  3. ^ "Samakh and Al-Hama" are grouped rather than listed as separate locations.
  4. ^ The ARDA's data is reproduced from the World Christian Database's 2010 estimates.[49]
  5. ^ Samoa and American Samoa share a single Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly
  6. ^ The source refers to the country by its old name, Republic of Upper Volta.
  7. ^ Minors under 15 years of age not counted.[106]
  8. ^ This number is for West Germany, and there is no entry for Baháʼís in East Germany.
  9. ^ Source separately lists 10,000 in the Indian state of Sikkim
  10. ^ Data is for the USSR
  11. ^ Samoa and American Samoa share a single Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly
  12. ^ Source gives the number for Guadalupe, which is the main city of the nation of São Tomé and Príncipe.
  13. ^ Source lists 1,838 in Somalia and 272 in Somaliland
  14. ^ The source separately identifies 300 on the Channel Islands.
  15. ^ Baháʼí numbers are for the continental states, excluding Alaska, Hawai'i, and territories.

Citations

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  8. ^ a b c d Smith 2022, p. 509.
  9. ^ a b c Baháʼí World News Service 2020.
  10. ^ a b c d e BWC Stats 2001.
  11. ^ Warburg 2006, p. 225.
  12. ^ a b Britannica 2010.
  13. ^ a b c World Christian Encyclopedia 2001, p. 1:4.
  14. ^ a b Johnson & Grim 2013.
  15. ^ a b Smith & Momen 1989, p. 70.
  16. ^ a b Pew Research 2012.
  17. ^ Kosmin & Keysar.
  18. ^ a b World Christian Encyclopedia 2001, p. 2:653.
  19. ^ Smith 2022, p. 25.
  20. ^ Warburg 2006, pp. 221–222.
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  22. ^ Smith 2000, p. 68.
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  24. ^ Hornby 1983, p. 76.
  25. ^ Smith 2000, p. 244.
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  30. ^ Warburg 2006, p. 221.
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  32. ^ Garlington 2008, p. xxi.
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  72. ^ Hartz 2009, p. 79.
  73. ^ Evening Standard 1912.
  74. ^ Anaconda Standard 1912.
  75. ^ Houston Chronicle 1912.
  76. ^ Greeley-Smith 1912.
  77. ^ Boston Evening Transcript 1911.
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  82. ^ World Christian Encyclopedia 2001.
  83. ^ UN Statistics Division 2020.
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  86. ^ ABS 1996.
  87. ^ ABS 2001.
  88. ^ ABS 2020, 2006 Census - Ethnicity.
  89. ^ SBS Census Explorer 2020.
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  94. ^ "Botswana". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  95. ^ NSA Canada 2017.
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  101. ^ a b Baháʼí News No. 676 1987, p. 1.
  102. ^ Bigelow 2006, p. 89.
  103. ^ USDoS 2019, Egypt.
  104. ^ Economist 2008.
  105. ^ Farrand 1990, p. 3.
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  107. ^ "Mitgliederzahlen: Sonstige – REMID – Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst e.V." (in German). Retrieved 2020-11-08.
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  109. ^ Guyana Census 2002.
  110. ^ Marshall 2019.
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  113. ^ India Census 1991.
  114. ^ a b Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2000.
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  134. ^ "2018 Census totals by topic – national highlights - Stats NZ". stats.govt.nz. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
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  145. ^ "Tajik Bahais Keep Quiet About Their Faith". iwpr.net. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
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  161. ^ "Other religions: Baha'i Faith". Religion in Zimbabwe. 17 March 2011.
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  169. ^ The Life of Shoghi Effendi by Helen Danesh, John Danesh and Amelia Danesh, Studying the Writings of Shoghi Effendi, edited by M. Bergsmo (Oxford: George Ronald, 1991)

References

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Books

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Encyclopedias

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Journals

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News reports

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Other sources

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Further reading

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