South Africa has a wide mix of religions. Many religions are represented in the ethnic and regional diversity of South Africa's

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 population. The traditional spiritualities of the Khoisan

Khoisan

Khoisan is a unifying name for two ethnic groups of Southern Africa, who share physical and putative linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally, the Khoisan are divided into the foraging San and the pastoral Khoi...

 and Bantu

Bantu languages

The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...

 speakers were succeeded in predominance by the Christianity

Christianity in Africa

Christianity is now one of the two most widely practised religions in Africa and is the largest religion in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most adherents outside Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea are Roman Catholic or Protestant. The presence of Christianity in Africa began in the middle of the 1st century in...

 introduced by the Dutch and, later, British

Anglo-African

Anglo-Africans are primarily White African people of largely British descent who live or come from Sub-Saharan Africa and are Anglophone. A large majority live in South Africa...

 settlers. In 1930 the majority of Afrikaner

Afrikaner

Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...

s were Afrikaner Calvinists

Afrikaner Calvinism

Afrikaner Calvinism is, according to theory, a unique cultural development that combined the Calvinist religion with the political aspirations of the white Afrikaans speaking people of South Africa....

Islam

Islam in South Africa

Islam in South Africa pre-dates the colonial period, and consisted of isolated contact with Arab and East Africa traders. Many South African Muslims are described as Coloureds, notably in the Western Cape, including those whose ancestors came as slaves from the Indonesian archipelago...

 was introduced by the Cape Malay slaves of the Dutch settlers, Hinduism

Hinduism in South Africa

Hinduism in South Africa has a following primarily in KwaZulu-Natal, due to historical patterns of migration to the region from India. But now a significant population exists also in Gauteng, especially around Lenasia...

 was introduced by the indentured servants imported from the Indian subcontinent, and Buddhism

Buddhism in South Africa

Buddhist traditions are represented in South Africa in many forms. Although the inherently introspective nature of Buddhism does not encourage census, adherents to these traditions are usually outspoken and supported by perhaps an even greater, though hidden number of sympathisers...

 was introduced by both Indians

Asians in South Africa

The majority of the Asian South African population is Indian in origin, most of them descended from indentured workers transported to work in the 19th century on the sugar plantations of the eastern coastal area, then known as Natal. They are largely English speaking, although many also retain the...

 and Chinese

South African Chinese

Chinese South Africans are a group of overseas Chinese that were born and/or are currently living in South Africa. The community consists of both those whose ancestors came to South Africa throughout the early 20th century, until Chinese immigration was banned under the Chinese Exclusion Act of...

 immigrants.

The Bahá'í Faith

Bahá'í Faith in South Africa

The Bahá'í Faith in South Africa began with the holding of Bahá'í meetings in the country in 1911. A small population of Bahá'ís remained until 1950 when large numbers of international Bahá'í pioneers settled in South Africa. In 1956, after members of various tribes in South Africa became Bahá'ís,...

 was introduced in 1911 grew after Bahá'ís from Canada, the United States and Germany settled in the country.

Judaism in South Africa came about some time before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

, by the participation of Jewish astronomers and cartographers

Cartography

Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...

 in the Portuguese discovery

Portugal in the Age of Discovery

During the history of Portugal between 1415 and 1578, Portugal discovered an eastern route to India that rounded the Cape of Good Hope, discovered Brazil, established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia, colonized selected areas of Africa, and sent the first direct European maritime...

 of the sea-route to India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. They assisted Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...

 and Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...

 who first sailed around the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

 in 1488 and 1497. However, Jews only began to arrive in numbers from the 1820s.

Demographics

Religion	Adherents	%	Adherents	%
	2001		2007
Christianity Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...	35750641	79.77	29684861	73.52
Non-religious Irreligion Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as...	6767165	15.1	3262428	8.08
Other	283815	0.63
Buddhism/Chinese folk			12113	0.03
Islam Islam in South Africa Islam in South Africa pre-dates the colonial period, and consisted of isolated contact with Arab and East Africa traders. Many South African Muslims are described as Coloureds, notably in the Western Cape, including those whose ancestors came as slaves from the Indonesian archipelago...	654064	1.46	985460	1.45
Undetermined	610974	1.36
Hinduism Hinduism in South Africa Hinduism in South Africa has a following primarily in KwaZulu-Natal, due to historical patterns of migration to the region from India. But now a significant population exists also in Gauteng, especially around Lenasia...	551668	1.23	504707	1.25
African traditional religion African Traditional Religion The traditional religions indigenous to Africa have, for most of their existence, been orally rather than scripturally transmitted. They are generally associated with animism. Most have ethno-based creations stories...	125898	0.28	6056487	15.0
Judaism Judaism Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...	75549	0.17	68640	0.17