Judea / Roman Palestine · 1st century AD

~2.4 billion

Salvation by grace through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; eternal life with God.

Ancient Israel / Near East · c. 2nd–1st millennium BC

~15–16 million

Covenant faithfulness, repentance (teshuvah), and life oriented toward God’s commandments; views of the world to come vary.

Arabia (Mecca / Medina) · 7th century AD

~1.9–2.0 billion

Submission to Allah, the Five Pillars, repentance, and judgment leading to Paradise or Hell.

Indian subcontinent · c. 1500 BC onward (Vedic roots)

~1.2 billion

Moksha — liberation from the cycle of rebirth (samsara) through karma, dharma, yoga, and devotion.

Northern India / Nepal · c. 5th–4th century BC

~500+ million

Nirvana — cessation of craving and rebirth through the Eightfold Path and insight into impermanence.

China and East Asia · Taoism c. 4th–3rd c. BC; Confucianism c. 5th c. BC

Hundreds of millions (cultural + religious overlap)

Harmony with the Tao / Heaven; cultivated virtue, ritual propriety, and social order more than “salvation.”

Modern West (roots in Enlightenment & earlier skepticism) · 17th–21st centuries (as a mass identity)

~1+ billion “nones” (broad category)

This-world flourishing, legacy, or meaning-making; afterlife typically denied or unknown.