According to a new Pew Research analysis, a third of the world’s countries have national flags that contain religious symbols. The 64 flags with religious imagery can be categorized by religion as follows:
- Christianity – 31
- Islam – 21
- Other Religions – 6
- Hinduism/Buddhism – 3
- Buddhism – 2
- Judaism – 1.
So What?
According to data gathered a few years ago by Pew Research, more than half of the global population are adherents to one of the world’s two largest religions: Christianity – 31.5% and Islam – 23.2%. Additionally, more than 2 out of every 10 people living are adherents of either Hinduism (15.0%) or Buddhism (7.1%).
If one considers only nations with religious flags, it would seem reasonable to expect the breakdown would be similar to the percentage of people adhering to each religion. The actual breakdown, however, varies significantly:
|
Religion |
% of Global Population |
% of Flags |
Over or Under Representation |
|
Christianity |
31.5% |
48.4% |
+16.9% |
|
Islam |
23.2% |
32.8% |
+9.6% |
|
Hinduism & Buddhism |
22.1% |
7.8% |
-14.3% |
- Are you surprised to learn that roughly 1/3 of all national flags contain a religious symbol?
- Why do you think Christianity and Islam have an over-representation of religious symbolism while Hinduism and Buddhism suffer from an under-representation when compared to their respective population sizes?