What is the world’s third largest monotheistic religion?

[Multicolored Lemur]

Regional Distribution of Christians

This report divides the world into five regions to take a closer look at the geographic distribution of Christians. (To view all the countries in each region, see the Interactive…

www.pewresearch.org

Adding up to just shy of 2.2 billion Christians.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

500 years after the Reformation, 5 facts about Protestants around the world

Five centuries after the Reformation, read key facts about Protestants around the world.

www.pewresearch.org

As of Dec. 2011.

So, even ten years later, Catholics are still most probably the largest branch of Christians.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

And Islam is going to clearly be the second largest monotheistic faith. And it will be interesting to see how the numbers break down between Shi’ite muslims and Sunni muslims.

So, what’s the third largest religion which believes in one God?

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

World’s Muslim population more widespread than you might think

While many may associate Islam with the Middle East or North Africa, nearly two-thirds of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region.

www.pewresearch.org

And there are about 1.6 billion Muslims.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

What is the world’s third largest monotheistic religion?

(Copied from the thread title)

Best way to answer is by knowing the size of each monotheistic religion. Here's one source:
Then this...

The three great monotheistic religions of the world—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—find common ground in Jerusalem, the center of Pope Paul's pilgrimage.

Source: The New York Times

Based on the 2 sources, I would say that Judaism is the third largest monotheistic religion.

I was also expecting for Christianity to be the largest religion in each major geographic region. I was surprised to find that the asia-pacific region had more Muslims than Christians.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

Based on the 2 sources, I would say that Judaism is the third largest monotheistic religion.

And you’d be wrong!

Surprisingly, these two sources are wrong, or at least incomplete.

The Jewish faith has the 4th most followers.

The 3rd is _________ ? ? ?

[and actually I’m not quite ready to give up the idea that either Hinduism or Buddhism have enough basically monotheistic followers to qualify.]

[for example, maybe Hindus who believe different gods flow from one “source,” meaning this would be a little similar to the Christian Trinity]

 

[AgnosticBoy]

The 3rd is _________ ? ? ?

Spoiler Alert!

[and actually I’m not quite ready to give up the idea that either Hinduism or Buddhism have enough basically monotheistic followers to qualify.]

[for example, maybe Hindus who believe different gods flow from one “source,” meaning this would be a little similar to the Christian Trinity]

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

Spoiler Alert!

I’m actually leaving off Hinduism and Buddhism.

It’s a full-fledged separate religion.

Not Mormonism, even if it was considered a separate faith.

Not the Baha’is.

But that’s a clue. Look to the East.

And you will find the _____ as a full-fledged separate monotheistic faith.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Sikhism. Final answer.

Wiki:

Sikhs (/siːk/ or /sɪk/; Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖ, sikkh [sɪkkʰ]) are people who adhere to Sikhism, a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian Subcontinent,

Sikhs number about 25-30 million worldwide, of whom 22–28 million live in India, which thus represents around 90% of the total Sikh population.

Interesting. Never looked into that religion at all.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

Sikhism. Final answer.

Very good. Excellent.