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

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

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

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

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

Baháʼí sources

• 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

2010s and newer

• 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

• 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

• 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

• The 1922 census of Palestine lists 265 Bahá'í in Mandatory Palestine (152 in Haifa, four in Tiberias, three in Al Nahr wal Tal, two in 'Affuleh, one each in Samakh and Al-Hama^[c] and Tulkarm),^[68] which increased on the 1931 census of Palestine to 350 Bahá'í (196 in Haifa, 51 in Acre, 35 in Acre's suburbs, 10 in Lydda, eight each in El Mazra'a and Hebron, seven each in Jerusalem (New City) and Tiberias, six in Nuqeib, five each in Beersheba, Nazareth, and Samra, four in El Bassa, one each in Jaffa, Rosh Pinna (police), and Yibna).^[69]
• Harry Luke, an official in the British Colonial Office, wrote in The Fringe of the East (1913) that there were "more than two million adherents" of the Baháʼí Faith.^[70]
• The World Christian Encyclopedia (1st edition, 1982) lists the global Baháʼí population of 1900 at 9,025.^[71]
• The Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (2004) reported that "By 1900, the community… had reached 50,000-100,000"^[57]
• Paula Hartz wrote in World Religions: Baha'i Faith (3rd edition, 2009) that during the last years of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's life (d. 1921), "The faith was now established in many countries around the world and its followers numbered around 100,000."^[72]

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

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)	2,000,000 (2020)[111]	1,050,000[i]	1,716,148	1,897,651		5,574 (1991)[112] 1,000,000 (1996)[113] 400,000 (1999)[113] 11,324 (2001)[114] 100,000 (2002)[115] 4,572 (2011)[116]
Indonesia (details)		15,000	26,537	22,815
Iran (details)	300,000 (1988)[117] 110,000 (2010)[118] 300,000 (2020)[9]	340,000	463,151	251,127		300,000–350,000 (1979)[119] 150,000–300,000[120] 300,000 (2019)[121]
Iraq (details)	2,000[122]	700	2,607	3,801
Ireland (details)		900	1,274	1,550	520 (2012)
Israel (details)	650[123]	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[124]	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[125]	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[126]	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)[127]	11,600	24,501	34,323
Malaysia (details)	30,000 (1986)[128]	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)[129]	0	53	55
Montenegro (details)				0
Montserrat (details)		200
Morocco (details)	350-400[130]	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)[131]
Netherlands (details)	11 (1948) 110 (1962) 365 (1973) 525 (1979)[132]	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)[133]
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)[134]
Oman (details)		420	9,123	9,987
Pakistan (details)	30,000 (2001)[135]	25,000	78,658	87,259		33,734 (2012)[136] 31,543 (2018)[137] 2,000-3,000 (2013)[138]
Palau (details)			150		96 (2005)
Panama (details)		20,000	35,318	41,170
Papua New Guinea (details)	40,000 (2006)[139]	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)[140]	100	1,843	1,895
Russia (details)	3,000[citation needed]	4,600[j]	16,586	19,338
Rwanda (details)	4,000[141]	7,500	14,211	19,592
Samoa (details)	925 (2014)[142][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)[143]	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)[144]
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)[145]
Turkey (details)		5,100	19,618	21,259
Turkmenistan (details)			964	1,090
Tuvalu (details)		400	580		177 (2007)
Uganda (details)	105,000[146]	330,600	66,546	95,098		29,601 (2014)[147]
Ukraine (details)	1,000[citation needed]		252	227
United Arab Emirates (details)		1,400	55,214	38,364
United Kingdom (details)	5,000 (1985)[148] 7,000 (2020)[149]	15,600[n]	30,628	47,554		5,021 (2011)[150]
United States (details)	1,500 (1899)[151] 1,200 (1906)[151] 100,000 (1988)[152] 130,000 (1995)[78] 177,647 (2020)[31] [o]	210,000	753,423	512,864		28,000 (1991)[153] 84,000 (2001)[153] 100,000 (2006)[154]
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)[155] 20,000 (2000)[155]	35,000	141,072	169,811
Vietnam (details)	200,000 (<1975) 6,000 (2006)[156]	220,000	356,133	388,802		3,000 (2019)[157]
Western Sahara (details)		100	121
Yemen (details)	250[citation needed]	480	1,000	1,328
Zambia (details)	4,000 (2017)[158]	16,000	162,443	241,112	3,891 (2015)
Zimbabwe (details)	1,000 (1971) 20,000 (1985)[159]	14,500	37,077	39,893		35,000 (1995)[160]

Adherents by continent

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).^[161]

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).^[162]

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

	1928[163]	1949[163]	1968[10]	1986[10]	2001	2006[164]
National Spiritual Assemblies	7	11	81	165	182	179
Local Spiritual Assemblies	102	595	6,840	18,232	11,740[165]
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[166][167][168]	3	10	12	56	113	125	148	184

See also

• History of the Baháʼí Faith
• Spiritual Assembly
• Socioeconomic development and the Baháʼí Faith
• Baháʼí divisions

Footnotes

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.

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References

Books

• Ančić, Branko (May 2014). "Bahá'í Religion as a New Religious Movement?". In Ott, Michael R. (ed.). The Dialectics of the Religious and the Secular. Brill. pp. 168–180.
• Bigelow, Kit (2006). The Plight of Religious Minorities: Can Religious Pluralism Survive?. Pennsylvania State University: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 89. ISBN 9780160772580.
• Bowker, John W., ed. (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-213965-8.
• Boyett, Jason (2016). 12 Major World Religions. Berkeley, CA: Zephyros Press. pp. 217–31. ISBN 978-1-62315-692-3.
• MacEoin, Denis (2000). "Baha'i Faith". In Hinnells, John R. (ed.). The New Penguin Handbook of Living Religions: Second Edition. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-051480-3.
• Miller, Timothy (2006). "New Religious Movements in American History". In Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, W. Michael (eds.). History and Controversies. Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Vol. 1. Westport, Connecticut • London: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0275987121.
• Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, W. Michael, eds. (2006). "The Baháʼís of the United States". Asian Traditions. Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Vol. 4. Westport, Connecticut • London: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0275987121.
• Garlington, William (2008). The Baha'i Faith in America (Paperback ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-6234-9.
• Grim, Brian; Johnson, Todd; Skirbekk, Vegard; Zurlo, Gina, eds. (2016). Yearbook of International Religious Demography 2016. Vol. 3. Brill. pp. 17–25. doi:10.1163/9789004322141. ISBN 9789004322141.
• Hartz, Paula (2009). World Religions: Baha'i Faith (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60413-104-8.
• Johnson, Todd M.; Grim, Brian J. (2013). "Global Religious Populations, 1910–2010" (PDF). The World's Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 59–62. doi:10.1002/9781118555767.ch1. ISBN 9781118555767.
• Lukach, Harry Charles (1913). The Fringe of the East. London: MacMillan. pp. 263–267.
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• Momen, Moojan (2008). The Baha'i Faith. Beginner's Guide. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1-85168-563-9.
• Oliver, Paul (28 September 2001). World Faiths (1st ed.). Teach Yourself Books. p. 78. ISBN 978-0340790601.
• O'Brien, Joanne; Palmer, Martin (2005). Religions Of The World. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-6258-4.
• Roof, Wade Clark (1993). A Generation of Seekers: Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-066964-5.
• Smith, Jonathan Z. (1995). The Harpercollins Dictionary of Religion. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-067515-8.
• Smith, Peter (2022). "Ch. 41: The History of the Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths". In Stockman, Robert H. (ed.). The World of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge. pp. 501–512. ISBN 978-1-138-36772-2.
• Smith, Peter (2022). "Ch. 50: Southeast Asia". In Stockman, Robert H. (ed.). The World of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge. pp. 614–621. ISBN 978-1-138-36772-2.
• Effendi, Shoghi (1971). Letters from The Guardian to Australia and New Zealand (reprint ed.). Australia: Baháʼí Publishing Trust.|
• Jones, Dale E. (2002). Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States, 2000. Nashville, Tenn: Glenmary Research Center.
• Gaustadd, Edwin Scott; Barlow, Philip L. (2001). New Historical Atlas of Religion in America. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
• Hornby, Helen, ed. (1983). Lights of Guidance: A Baháʼí Reference File. New Delhi, India: Baháʼí Publishing Trust. ISBN 978-81-85091-46-4.
• Momen, Moojan (2004). Smith, Peter (ed.). Baháʼís in the West. Kalimat Press. ISBN 978-1-890688-11-0.
• Warburg, Margit (2006). Citizens of the world: a history and sociology of the Bahaʹis from a globalisation perspective. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-474-0746-1. OCLC 234309958.
• Warburg, Margit (2015). "The Baha'is of the North". Handbook of Nordic New Religions. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Vol. 11. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-29244-4.

Encyclopedias

• van den Hoonaard, Will (1993-11-08). "Netherlands: History of the Baha'i Faith". The Bahá'í Encyclopedia: draft. Baha'i Library Online. Retrieved 2022-06-17.
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Journals

• Cole, Juan (1998). "The Baha'i Faith in America as Panopticon, 1963-1997". The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 37 (2): 234–248. doi:10.2307/1387523. JSTOR 1387523.
• Demmrich, Sarah (2020-01-06). "How to measure Baha'i Religiosity". Religions. 11 (1:29). doi:10.3390/rel11010029.
• Hsu, Becky; Reynolds, Amy; Hackett, Conrad; Gibbon, James (2008-07-09). "Estimating the Religious Composition of All Nations" (PDF). Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 47 (4): 678–693. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00435.x. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-03-26.
• Smith, Peter (1984). "A note on Babi and Baha'i numbers in Iran". Iranian Studies. 17 (2–3): 295–301. doi:10.1080/00210868408701633.
• Smith, Peter; Momen, Moojan (1989). "The Baha'i Faith 1957–1988: A Survey of Contemporary Developments". Religion. 19: 63–91. doi:10.1016/0048-721X(89)90077-8.
• Grim, Brian J (2012). "Rising restrictions on religion" (PDF). International Journal of Religious Freedom. 5 (1): 17–33. ISSN 2070-5484. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 11, 2017. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
• Smith, Peter (26 November 2014). "The Baha'i Faith: Distribution Statistics, 1925–1949". Journal of Religious History. 39 (3): 352–369. doi:10.1111/1467-9809.12207. ISSN 1467-9809.
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News reports

• Baháʼí World News Service (1992). "How many Baháʼís are there?". The Baháʼís. Baháʼí International Community. p. 14. Archived from the original on 17 July 2015.
• Baháʼí World News Service (2020). "Statistics". Baháʼí International Community. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
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• Ghauri, Irfan (2012-09-01). "Over 35,000 Buddhists, Baha'is call Pakistan home". The Express Tribune. Karachi, Pakistan.
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• Greeley-Smith, Nicola (12 April 1912). "ʻAbdu'l-Bahá ʻAbbas, Head of New Religion, Believes in Woman Suffrage and Divorce". The Evening World. New York: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
• "Persian Prophet In London". Boston Evening Transcript. National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States. 9 September 1911. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
• "The List: The World's Fastest-Growing Religions". Foreign Policy. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. May 2007. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
• A.V. (20 April 2017). "The Economist explains: The Bahai faith". The Economist. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
• "A bit more religious freedom". The Economist. 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2021-01-24.
• Hinton, Sean (2020-08-28). "Baha'i Blogcast with Rainn Wilson – Ep 53: Sean Hinton (part 1) – The Story of Becoming the Knight of Baha'u'llah for Mongolia" (Interview). Interviewed by Rainn Wilson. Baha’i Blog. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
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• "Zimbabwe" (PDF). Baháʼí News No. 653. National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States. August 1985. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
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• Farrand, Quentin (February 1990). "Amid the chaos, a celebration" (PDF). Baha'i News. No. 706. National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States. pp. 1–3. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
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Other sources

• Marshall, Svetlana (2019-10-13). "Bahá'ís in Guyana celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of the Báb". Guyana Chronicle.
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• "Census 96: Religion". 1998-03-03. Archived from the original on 2010-05-05.
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Further reading

• Smith, Peter; Momen, Moojan (1989). "The Baha'i Faith 1957–1988: A Survey of Contemporary Developments". Religion. 19: 63–91. doi:10.1016/0048-721X(89)90077-8.
• Smith, Peter (26 November 2014). "The Baha'i Faith: Distribution Statistics, 1925–1949". Journal of Religious History. 39 (3): 352–369. doi:10.1111/1467-9809.12207. ISSN 1467-9809.
• Baháʼí World Centre Department of Statistics (August 2001). "Baháʼí World Statistics August 2001 CE". Baha'i Library Online. Retrieved 2013-04-14.
• Warburg, Margit (2006). Citizens of the world: a history and sociology of the Bahaʹis from a globalisation perspective. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-474-0746-1. OCLC 234309958.

External links

• Bahá'í World News Service (2013). List and Map of 114 Bahá'í Conferences