April 15

Religious practice and belief declined sharply in Britain, the Netherlands, France, and the Soviet Union. Those trends that involved the further spread of major world religions were the far more prominent trends of the last century. In this most recent century, religion played an unexpectedly role. As transregional cultures Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam have been spreading far beyond their places of origin. In the West, Buddhist ideas and practices such as yoga and meditation found a warm reception. Perhaps 7 to 8 percent of China's population claimed allegiance to the faith; some 84 to 96 million people did so by the end of the twentieth century. Asia, Latin America, and Africa is where by the early twenty-first century, Christianity found some 62 percent of its adherents. A certain religion was planted solidly in the West by millions of migrants from the Islamic world. In the United States, both African Americans and European Americans engaged in Islamic practice.