Religion

Bangladesh is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. About 80 percent of Bangladeshis are Muslims. Most Bangladeshi Muslims are Sunnis, but there is a small Shia community. Hinduism constitutes about 12 percent of the population. Hindus in Bangladesh in the 1990s were almost evenly distributed in all regions, with concentrations in Khulna, Jessore, Dinajpur, Faridpur, and Barisal.

There are significant numbers of Buddhists and Christians in Bangladesh. In the Chittagong Hills, Buddhist tribes formed the majority of the population and their religion appeared to be a mixture of tribal cults and Buddhist doctrines. According to the 1981 census, there were approximately 600,000 Buddhists in Bangladesh, representing less than 1 percent of the population. In the 1990s, Christianity had about 600,000 adherents, mainly Roman Catholic, and their numbers were growing rapidly. 
Bangladesh also has a very small number of tribal community that obey a different type of religious beliefs.

Posted in: Bangladesh Overview