The world is becoming more religious as the growth of Christianity and most other religions continues to outpace the growth of atheism and nonreligious people.

United States statisticians David Barrett and Todd Johnson count one in three of the world's 6.28 billion humans as Christians (2.1 billion). One in five (1.3 billion) are Muslims; 13.5 percent are Hindus (849 million); and 5.9 percent are Buddhists (371 million).

Almost 15 percent (938 million) are non-religious and atheists, but their annual growth rates of 0.8 and 0.2 percent lag well behind the world's population growth rate of 1.2 percent.

Muslims record the fastest annual growth rate at 2.1 percent followed by Hindus at 1.5 percent. Christianity continues to grow, but only by 1.3 percent - just slightly faster than the world population growth. The number of Buddhists is rising by 1 percent annually.

Although nearly 5 billion Bibles and Scripture portions are distributed worldwide each year, the gospel has not yet reached one in four persons (26.3 percent), say Barrett and Johnson. (IDEA)