Faith Maps
Eighteen religions on the map, century by century: where each began, how it spread, where it was a main faith or held communities, and where it last lived on. Choose a faith, press Play and turn the globe, or lay a second faith over the first to compare them.
Buddhism through the centuries
The history of Buddhism →
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How to read the maps
A bright glow marks a region where the faith was a main faith of the people or of their rulers; a faint glow marks communities that lived among people of other faiths. A glow shows a region, not a border, and its dates are rounded: conversion was slow almost everywhere, and the maps follow the standard histories named under each one. Arrows show how a faith spread, a star where it began, dots its holy places and centres, and rings its last places. The globe turns to each century's spread until you turn it yourself (Follow the spread sets it going again); the flat map shows the whole world at once. The religions of ancient Egypt and Greece, Manichaeism, Mesoamerican and Norse religion are maps of faiths that ended; the others run to today, with estimates of their followers from the Pew Research Center and national censuses.