Religion
The Government does not conduct census on religion, but estimates put the percentage of the majority Salafis at 85-90% while Shiites, who comprise the largest Muslim minority, at 10-15% of the population. Shiites (Twelvers) are primarily concentrated in the Eastern Province, where they constitute over a third of the population. Other smaller communities (Ismailis and Zaidis) reside in the South, with Ismailis constituting around half of the population of the province of Nejran, and the Holy Islamic cities of Mecca and Medina.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Saudi Arabia
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“Men are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment.”
—Michel Guillaume Jean De Crevecoeur (1735–1813)
“Our religion vulgarly stands on numbers of believers. Whenever the appeal is made—no matter how indirectly—to numbers, proclamation is then and there made, that religion is not. He that finds God a sweet, enveloping presence, who shall dare to come in?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... it was religion that saved me. Our ugly church and parochial school provided me with my only aesthetic outlet, in the words of the Mass and the litanies and the old Latin hymns, in the Easter lilies around the altar, rosaries, ornamented prayer books, votive lamps, holy cards stamped in gold and decorated with flower wreaths and a saint’s picture.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)