Demographics of Pakistan - Religion

Religion

According to the CIA World Factbook, Library of Congress, Oxford University, over 97% of the population of Pakistan is Muslim and the remaining 3% is Christian, Hindu and others. Majority of the Muslims practice Sunni Islam with Shi'as being the minority who make up 10–15%.

Nearly all Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school, although there are some Hanbalis and Ahlul Hadeeth. The majority of Shia Muslims belong to the Ithnā‘Ashariyyah branch, while a smaller number practice Ismailism. There are small non-Muslim religious groups, including Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis, Bahá'ís and Zoroastrians (Parsis).

The religious breakdown of the Pakistani population is as follows:

  • Muslims: 181,723,000
  • Christians: 2,700,000 (approx. 1.8%)
  • Hindus: 1,800,000 (approx. 1.6%)
  • Buddhists: 50,000
  • Sikhs: 30,000
  • Zoroastrian/Parsis: 25,000 (many are undocumented migrants from Iran)
  • Jews: 200
  • Animists, Baha'i, Atheists: n/a

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