The World's Religions

[a completely inoffensive name]

You learn something new every day. Recently, I saw this world religion map posted which goes into extensive detail (very large image).

https://i.imgur.com/rzv85dn.png

Few things I learned:

1. African Christians seem to be mostly Protestant, I thought Catholicism was dominant across the entire southern half.

2. That large blob of "no religion" in eastern Germany as well as Estonia.

3. New Guinea (the island) is more diverse than I thought as well.

4. The pockets of Islam in Albania(?) and Bosnia were more dominating than I thought.

5. There are tiny enclaves of Roman Catholicism majority in the oddest of places. Does anyone have any knowledge of why?

From the creator of the map:

Pre-emptively answering some questions:


1) This maps shows nominal religion as self-determined by individuals answering census questions, surveys, etc. This does not necessarily indicate their de facto religion; for example, someone may call themselves a Catholic for cultural reasons but not believe in God while another may say they have no religion yet believe in some divine or supernatural force.


2) Islam could not be divided as Christianity was due to data limitations. Most Islamic countries do not ask about specific sects in their surveys and censuses.


3) Scandanavia uses official state church data


4) The Chilean claim of Antarctica is colored based on Chilean census data for [Villa Las Estrellas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Las_Estrellas)


5) The Assyrian population of the Nineveh Plains in Iraq may no longer exist due to ISIS.

Link to where I found this: http://tinyurl.com/ll9pk95