The Arabian Peninsula before Islam was mostly polytheist. The Kaaba in Mecca was already a major pilgrimage site, but at the time it housed around 360 idols, one for each tribal deity, with Hubal at the center. Judaism and Christianity had both reached parts of Arabia, mostly in areas that bordered the Byzantine and Sassanid empires, but neither had any real hold over the interior.

In Persia Zoroastrianism had been the official faith of the Sassanid Empire for over four centuries when Arab armies defeated the Sassanids between 633 and 651 CE. Many Zoroastrians left for India rather than convert, and their descendants, the Parsis, are still there. There are now around 100-200 thousand Zoroastrians worldwide, a small number for a religion that was once the state faith of one of antiquity’s major empires.

Augustine of Hippo was from what is now northeastern Algeria. Tertullian, who coined the word “Trinity,” was from Carthage in modern Tunisia. They’re two of the most influential figures in Christian history, and both came from a region that’s now almost entirely Muslim. By the 5th century, North Africa was a major center of Christian life. The Arab conquests changed that over the following centuries, and by around the 11th century the last indigenous Christian communities in the Maghreb were gone.

In Egypt, the Coptic Church survived the Arab conquest of 641 CE and is still there, now counting around 12 million members, about 10% of the country’s population.

Before the Arab conquests, the Syriac Church had missionary networks reaching as far as China. In 635 CE, a Syriac monk named Alopen arrived in Chang’an and was received by Emperor Taizong, who invited the Christians to translate their sacred works for the imperial library. The real pressure on Syriac communities came from the 8th century onward (during the reign of ‘Abd al-Malik) rather than immediately after the Arab conquests, and over time those communities contracted significantly. Around 1.5 million people identify with Syriac Christianity today.

Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Hinduism were all established long before the 7th century, and the Arab conquests didn’t substantially reach their heartlands. Arab forces never made it to the Horn of Africa either, which is why the Ethiopian Orthodox Church survived intact and today counts around 60 million followers worldwide. Tracking Tengrism is more challenging because the shamanistic traditions of the steppe peoples largely converted to Islam in the 14th century, though slowly enough that many practices got folded into local Islamic customs rather than disappearing outright. Without Islam, it would likely still span much of Central Asia.

The Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries changed a lot of what you see on this map. Some religious communities survived them, like the Coptic Church. Most didn’t, at least not in any recognizable form. Arab polytheism is effectively gone. Zoroastrianism went from being the state religion of one of the ancient world’s major empires to having around 150 thousand adherents worldwide. North African Christianity simply vanished.

The post What Would the World’s Religious Map Look Like Without Islam? appeared first on Vivid Maps.

The map below takes a different angle and shows only non-Abrahamic religions, one per country.

Buddhism fills most of it. Russia is the most substantive case since Kalmykia, Buryatia, and Tuva have had Tibetan Buddhist communities for several hundred years. Across the rest of Europe Buddhism tends to lead by a thin margin through East and Southeast Asian diaspora populations, not because it has especially deep local roots.

The UK and the Netherlands having Hinduism on top makes sense given colonial history and South Asian immigration, but Moldova and Andorra are less obvious. The pattern, once you look into it, is that South Asian communities put down roots in more places than most people would guess, and in countries where almost everyone else is Christian or Muslim, even a moderately sized diaspora can end up leading the non-Abrahamic count. Nine countries in total, with Pew Research putting Europe’s combined Hindu population at roughly 2 million in 2020, up about 30% from the decade before.

Seven countries across the northeast come up Neopagan: Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Romania. Ásatrú in Iceland goes back to the 1970s as an officially recognized religion and has been growing since. In Lithuania that equivalent is Romuva, in Estonia it’s Maausk, both reconstructions of pre-Christian traditions that the Soviet Union banned. After 1991 a lot of communities in the region started putting those things back together, and some of it moved faster than you might expect.

Zoroastrians were building fire temples on the Absheron Peninsula centuries before Islam arrived in the region. A small community survived the transition and is still present in Azerbaijan—a country that borders Iran.

Turkey has Tengrism, the old religion of the Turkic steppe peoples, predating Islam in the region by a considerable stretch. It’s centered on Tengri as sky deity and treats humans as part of the natural world rather than above it. There’s been a gradual revival tied to interest in pre-Islamic Turkic roots, and in 2022 a Turkish lawyer who wanted to register as Tengrist went through the country’s legal system to make it official, apparently the first person to do that.

Czechia’s leading non-Abrahamic religion turned out to be Jediism in the 2021 census, with 21,539 people filing it as their faith. It started as an organized push in the early 2000s to register protest through official census categories rather than leave the field blank. By 2021 that number had gone up almost 40% from 2011. Czechia also has the highest rate of religious non-affiliation in Europe, somewhere above 70%, so the context for all of this is a country that is mostly just done with the question of religion in a formal sense.

The post Europe’s Non-Abrahamic Religions Mapped appeared first on Vivid Maps.

Those numbers don’t mean much until you look at where people actually live. Northern Ireland is nearly 80% Christian. Meanwhile in Scotland, over half the population says they have no religion. London has a large Muslim population at 15%. Travel to Northern Ireland and Muslims make up less than 1%.

Christian Populations Across Regions

Northern Ireland stands at 79.7% Christian. The sectarian conflicts there left lasting marks on how people identify religiously. England’s North East comes next at 50.8%. That’s the only other region breaking 50%.

Scotland sits at 38.8% Christian. Greater London is slightly higher at 40.7%. The South East has the most Christians by total count, 4.3 million people. But even there Christians are only 46.4% of residents. Most of Wales and England fall between 44% and 50%.

The ethnic makeup of England’s Christians has shifted over time. White British people are 78% of the group. Other White populations, many from Eastern Europe, account for 8%. Black Christians are 6% of the total, Asian Christians 2%.

Where Non-Religious Identity Is Highest

Scotland leads here. 51.1% of Scots identify as having no religion. Wales reaches 46.6%. The South West of England hits 44%.

Northern Ireland sits at just 17.4% non-religious. The North West has Manchester and Liverpool but is only 32.6% non-religious. London? Just 27%, below the national average.

Most of the UK atheists are British.

Muslim Communities

London contains 1.3 million Muslims. They represent 15% of people living in the capital. About a third of all British Muslims live in London. The West Midlands reaches 9.6% Muslim. In the North West it’s 7.6%.

Scotland’s Muslim population is much smaller at 2.2%. Northern Ireland barely hits 0.6%.

The ethnic backgrounds vary within the Muslim community. People of Pakistani heritage form the largest group at 38%. Bangladeshis are the second largest at 15.3%. Black Muslims account for 10.8% of the community. Arabs make up 7.2%, Indians 6.4%.

Hindus

London dominates. The capital has 42% of all British Hindus. Add the South East and that’s 57% of the Hindu population in two regions. Scotland has under 30,000 Hindus. Northern Ireland has around 4,000.

Most British Hindus trace heritage to India (77%). Sri Lankan Tamils are 6% of the community. Nepalis make up nearly 4%.

Sikhs

The West Midlands has 32% of British Sikhs. That’s the strongest regional concentration of any major religious group in the entire UK. London contains another 27% of Sikhs.

The pattern traces back decades. Birmingham and Wolverhampton had booming factories in the 1950s and 60s. They needed workers and recruited from Punjab. Those early arrivals formed communities. Families joined them. About 74% of British Sikhs have Indian heritage today.

Jews and Buddhists

Greater London is home to over half of British Jews (52%). The East of England has another 15%, mostly in Hertfordshire and Essex near London. Put those together and two regions account for 67% of Britain’s 277,613 Jews.

Buddhists are more geographically dispersed. The South East contains 27% of them. London has 19%. The East of England accounts for 9%.

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Africa has 754 million Christians. Europe has 552 million, and North America has 401 million. If you add up the numbers, Africa has more Christians than Europe and North America combined.

In 1900, Africa had maybe 10 million Christians. Now, just 120 years later, the number has grown about 75 times!

South America comes in second globally with 400 million. Brazil alone has 185 million Catholics. That’s more Catholics than any other country in the world.

Asia has 417 million despite being home to more than half the world’s population. The Philippines holds 93 million of Asia’s Christians, basically a quarter of the continent’s total. Three centuries of Spanish rule left their mark.

Russia is home to 105 million of Europe’s Christians. Without Russia, the number of Christians in Europe would be much lower. In many Western European countries, especially among people under 40, church attendance has become less common.

The religion started with a handful of people in Jerusalem. Now there are churches on Arctic ice and underground house churches in places where it’s illegal to practice.

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Can we prove every detail in those stories? A few names stand on firmer ground. Peter, John and James, the brother of Jesus, are the best attested. The historian Josephus refers to James in a passage usually dated to about 93 AD. For most of the others, outside evidence is thin. What is clear is that Christianity spread quickly across the Mediterranean in the first century, and the maps below collect the places later tradition assigns to each apostle.

The first map created by @Civixplorer shows where each apostle is said to have died, according to church tradition.

Paul is not one of the original Twelve, but his letters are a different kind of evidence. They date from the 50s and 60s AD and describe real communities and the problems they faced. Those letters help us place early Christian groups in cities across Asia Minor and Greece. Modern scholars estimate Paul travelled thousands of miles on routes that linked towns such as Antioch, Ephesus and Corinth; he was eventually arrested and executed in Rome in the 60s AD.

The second map traces the routes tied to each apostle. Purple arrows indicate routes with stronger support and red arrows mark paths where the evidence is weaker. Green shows the Roman border around 114 AD and yellow highlights areas where Christianity had spread by the early second century.

Tradition places Simon the Zealot in Parthian lands where several accounts say he suffered a violent death. Jude, often called Thaddaeus, appears in stories centered on the Levant and Beirut. Philip’s tradition centers on Hierapolis and describes his martyrdom.

Some of the traditional journeys cover great distances. Thomas is credited with travelling to southern India and dying at Mylapore, and Christian communities in Kerala still trace their origins to him even though written records appear later. Matthew is linked by tradition with Aksum and said to have been killed there. Bartholomew appears in Armenian accounts with a brutal end. These reports vary by source and many cannot be independently verified, but when the traditions are placed onto a map they follow routes that were feasible in the ancient world.

The post What happened to the 12 Apostles? appeared first on Vivid Maps.

Before Islam, the peninsula was religiously varied. Many people followed local, place-based polytheisms — shrines and clan gods that tied worship to a town, a caravan route or a sacred grove. Alongside those local cults you find individuals called hanifs, people described in later Islamic sources as monotheists who rejected idol worship and looked toward Abrahamic-style belief.

Nearer the great empires to the north and east, organized religions left clearer traces. Zoroastrian practice was strong in lands controlled by the Sasanian Persians to the northeast; while most Zoroastrian communities remained outside Arabia proper, cultural and religious ties crossed frontiers.

Christian communities were established in several coastal and inland towns. Najrān, for example, is remembered as a substantial Christian center in late antiquity with bishops, churches and recorded disputes that reached other Christian courts.

Jewish communities lived in a number of oasis towns and coastal settlements — Khaybar and pockets in Yemen among them — where Jewish families played roles in agriculture, trade and local politics for centuries before and after the seventh century.

Sabian or star-worshipping groups, especially around Harran and nearby Mesopotamia, are another element visible in the record; later Muslim writers sometimes grouped these communities with Mandaean or other local traditions.

The religious map changed quickly once Islam began to spread. Islamic tradition dates Muhammad’s first revelation to about 610 CE and his migration to Medina to 622; by 630 Muslims had reentered Mecca, and within a few decades the early Muslim polity expanded across the Near East under the first caliphs. Political control, trade networks and social incentives all helped the new faith spread; in some places conversion followed state structures, in others it was more gradual and lasted generations.

Even after Islam spread across Arabia, older religions didn’t vanish at once — they found new ways to live on. In Persian lands to the northeast people kept Zoroastrian rites in family and community life, and when some groups moved westward they helped form the Parsi community on India’s west coast. In towns across the Levant and Mesopotamia, Christians still met in their churches and kept their worship and rituals alive even as political rulers changed. In Yemen and several oasis settlements, Jewish families stayed for many generations, and it was the large migrations and political turmoil of the twentieth century that greatly reduced those local communities.

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Dominicans made quite a name for themselves across Europe through their scholarship and public preaching. You’d find them teaching at major universities, working as theologians, and advising both rulers and Church leaders. Some of history’s most influential thinkers came from Dominican ranks, including Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great. Their work shaped not just religious thought but philosophy and education as well.

Although their presence isn’t as large as it was in the Middle Ages, the Order still runs schools, universities, and parishes across Europe. Their work now extends into new areas, including online platforms and modern media, while keeping a focus on education and pastoral care.

The map below, created by Reddit user No_Pause_8657, shows the Dominican provinces in Europe as of 2020. It corresponds closely with the official list on the Dominican website.

Some provinces cover entire countries – Hispania for Spain or Polonia for Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia – while others cross today’s national borders. Look at Francia—it sweeps across France into Scandinavia, Finland, and even the Baltic States. Teutonia takes in most of Germany. Italy’s map gets more complicated, though. Instead of one big province, you’ll find several smaller ones spread across the map.

So what’s going on here? These boundaries weren’t drawn yesterday. When Dominicans first started organizing themselves across Europe, they paid attention to how people actually lived and communicated. If friars in northern France could easily travel to Belgium and share the same language, why not group them together? It made sense.

The provinces grew up around practical things – who could talk to whom, which trade routes connected different cities, what cultural traditions people shared. Modern country borders didn’t factor into the equation because, well, many of those borders didn’t exist yet or looked completely different.

These old divisions still work today, even as Europe has changed dramatically around them. Dominican communities have rolled with the changes – new languages, different political situations, population shifts – but they’ve kept the basic idea of organizing around natural connections rather than political lines drawn on maps.

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Here’s a breakdown of the number of Popes by country of birth:

Why So Many Popes from Italy?

Italy’s predominance makes sense when you think about it.
During most of history, the Catholic Church’s center of gravity was Rome — both politically and spiritually. In the early centuries, Popes were almost always chosen from the local clergy (travel was difficult, communications slow, and cultural chasms deep.).

In addition, the Papal States, an independent state ruled by the Pope from roughly 756 to 1870, anchored the papacy firmly in Italian soil. To this day, the Vatican sits within the walls of Rome, a living witness to that historic connection.

And What About the Others?

France, Greece, Syria, and Germany also appear on the list, though with much smaller numbers.
France’s influence peaked during the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377), when the seat of the Pope was moved temporarily to Avignon, France.
Greece and Syria, however, symbolize the early spread of Christianity into the Eastern Mediterranean — a region far more preponderant in the Church’s first centuries than it is today.

It’s also worth noting that ancient lands like “Africa” refer to Roman Africa (roughly modern-day Tunisia and parts of Algeria and Libya), not the continent as we know it today.

A Modern Shift: The Global Church

In recent decades, the Catholic Church has expanded rapidly outside of Europe — especially in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia.
Pope John Paul II (a Pole) and Pope Francis (an Argentine) are dramatic symbols of this shift.

The largest Catholic populations today are in Africa and Latin America, not Europe. Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, and Nigeria are some of the largest Catholic populations in the world. The Church is no longer a predominantly European institution — it’s a truly global one.

Can we anticipate that future Popes will come from these regions? Many think it’s likely. As the demographic center of Catholicism shifts south, the leadership of the Church may eventually follow suit.

The post Where Were the Popes Born? A Map of Papal Origins Through Time appeared first on Vivid Maps.

Isaac Asimov once observed something profound about the Bible’s historical significance: for centuries, this text was virtually the only historical record that most people knew (Isaac Asimov, “Guide to the Bible”, 1967 – Amazon link). It’s a startling thought. Imagine a world where your understanding of ancient civilizations comes primarily from a single, centuries-old text.

Take Nebuchadnezzar, for instance. Most people today know his name not from comprehensive historical studies, but because he’s prominently featured in biblical narratives. Meanwhile, equally significant historical figures like Pericles remain obscure to the general public. This selective historical memory reveals how powerful storytelling can shape our collective understanding of the past.

Consider Ecbatana, today a provincial capital in Iran, but once the heart of the Median Empire. For most people, its primary claim to fame is a brief mention in the biblical Book of Tobit. Yet this city has witnessed millennia of human civilization, its stories far richer than a single biblical reference might suggest.

The geographical landscape of biblical times was remarkably different from our modern conception of nation-states. Persia—now Iran—was once a massive empire that played a crucial role in regional history. The Bible celebrates King Cyrus the Great, even granting him the extraordinary title of “messiah” for ending the Jewish exile and returning people to their homeland (Book of Isaiah, Chapter 45).

Remarkably, several modern countries trace their geographical roots directly to biblical lands. Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Spain all exist in forms recognizable to ancient storytellers.

This world map unveils a surprising geographical revelation: biblical references span an incredible range of countries, from the well-known to the unexpected. From the ancient empires of Egypt and Iran to the lesser-known biblical mentions of France and Croatia, these lands tell a story far more intricate than many might expect.

Armenia appears in Genesis 8:4, referenced in the story of Noah’s Ark, where the biblical narrative suggests the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Today, these mountains straddle the border between modern Armenia and Turkey, linking ancient mythology with contemporary geography.

France might surprise many, but it’s mentioned in 1 Maccabees 8:23, revealing the complex diplomatic relations of ancient times. Similarly, Croatia receives a brief biblical mention in 2 Timothy 4:10, a testament to the far-reaching connections of early Christian communications.

Some countries carry profound historical significance. Ethiopia, mentioned in 2 Chronicles 9:1, represents one of the oldest continuous civilizations, with biblical references highlighting its historical importance. India appears in 1 Kings 10:22, suggesting sophisticated trade networks that existed thousands of years ago.

The geopolitical landscape of biblical times was remarkably different from our modern understanding. Countries like Syria, Iraq, and Jordan were cradles of complex civilizations, their biblical mentions offering glimpses into intricate historical narratives. North Macedonia, referenced in Acts 16:9, represents the crossroads of ancient cultural exchanges.

Cyprus, mentioned in Acts 15:39, emerges as a critical location in early Christian missionary journeys, highlighting the Mediterranean’s role in spreading new religious ideas. Libya’s appearance in Matthew 27:32 provides a brief but intriguing glimpse into the multicultural landscape surrounding Jerusalem.

Saudi Arabia’s reference in Galatians 4:25 connects to the profound story of Hagar and Ishmael, revealing how biblical narratives intertwine with geographical locations. The mention links ancient familial stories to a specific regional context, demonstrating the deep geographical roots of biblical narratives.

Even more fascinating are the countries that might seem unexpected in a biblical context. Pakistan, mentioned in the Book of Esther, reveals the extensive reach of ancient empires. The biblical references show a world far more interconnected than many might imagine.

What makes these ancient lands so compelling? It’s the intersection of geography, culture, and storytelling. Each location mentioned in biblical texts isn’t just a point on a map, but a complex ecosystem of human experiences, migrations, conflicts, and connections.

Historians like Tommy Trelawny remind us that while modern nation-states are relatively recent constructs, the regions they occupy have rich, interconnected histories that far predate our current political boundaries.

For those fascinated by the intersection of ancient history, geography, and biblical scholarship, here are some Amazon resources to explore further:

• Illustrated Bible Atlas
• Historical Geography of the Bible
• Archaeological Guide to Biblical Sites

We’re curious to hear from you! What historical lands fascinate you most? Have you visited any biblical sites? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

The post A World Map of All the Countries Mentioned in the Bible appeared first on Vivid Maps.

Mormons—members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—embrace modern life completely. They use smartphones, attend universities, and work in every profession. Utah has 2.2 million Mormon residents, about 68% of the state. Idaho adds another 474,000.

A map below projects how these populations might look in 2100.

Amish families have 5-7 kids on average. About 85% stay Amish after growing up. Do that math over several generations and you get exponential growth. Their numbers double every 20 years or so. Back in 2000, there were 177,910 Amish people. Now it’s over 400,000—up 125% in 24 years.

When Amish families need more land, they move. Pennsylvania got too pricey, so they went elsewhere. Last year they started 46 new communities. Since 2000, Amish settlements popped up in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. Minnesota saw its Amish population jump 230% in 20 years. New York went from 4,505 Amish to over 21,000.

Mormon families are bigger than average too—2.8 children versus 2.06 nationally. But the percentage of Americans who call themselves Mormon has actually decreased. It went from 1.8% in 2007 down to 1.2% by 2022. In 2023, Mormon membership in the U.S. grew 0.95%, which barely beats regular population growth.

Mormons aren’t looking for farmland. They move where jobs are. Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon—these states are seeing more Mormon residents. But Utah and Idaho remain the core.

By 2100, projections put the Amish population around 3.5 million, nearly 1% of all Americans. The map shows them across the Great Plains and Mountain West. Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas—all could have large Amish communities. Mormons would still dominate Utah and Idaho but spread into neighboring states. Colorado might have both groups in significant numbers.

Of course, a lot can change in 75 years. The Amish need cheap farmland. Can they keep finding it? Many already work in shops and construction instead of farms. Will that change how many young people stay? For Mormons, one study says they probably won’t hit 31.3 million by 2050 (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is growing at a faster rate than the world population). Utah might already be less than half Mormon—some estimates say 42%. Remember, back in 1983 someone predicted 267 million Mormons by 2080. That’s clearly not happening.

Books Worth Checking Out

If you want to read more (Amazon links):

• An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World’s Largest Amish Community by Charles E. Hurst and David L. McConnell
• The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith by Matthew Bowman
• National Geographic: United States Classic Wall Map (to visualize current and future religious distribution)

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