Which city has the greatest religious diversity?

score:8

Accepted answer

A close proxy for "most religions" that is much more easily measured will be what is called a "Global City," and Wikipedia happens to have exactly such a list.

The criteria used in determining their ranking are:

  • A variety of international financial services, notably in finance, insurance, real estate, banking, accountancy, and marketing
  • Headquarters of several multinational corporations
  • The existence of financial headquarters, a stock exchange and major financial institutions
  • Domination of the trade and economy of a large surrounding area
  • Major manufacturing centres with port and container facilities
  • Considerable decision-making power on a daily basis and at a global level
  • Centres of new ideas and innovation in business, economics, culture and politics
  • Centres of media and communications for global networks
  • Dominance of the national region with great international significance
  • High percentage of residents employed in the services sector and information sector
  • High-quality educational institutions, including renowned universities, international student attendance[8] and research facilities
  • Multi-functional infrastructure offering some of the best legal, medical and entertainment facilities in the country

Now clearly not all of these criteria will directly correlate to cultural (and therefore religious) diversity, but it's a close proxy.

And rounding out the top of their list, with Alpha++ rating are:

  • London, UK
  • New York City, USA

The cities with Alpha+ rating are:

  • Hong Kong
  • Paris, France
  • Singapore
  • Shanghai, China
  • Tokyo, Japan
  • Beijing, China
  • Sydney, Australia
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Now, you'll want to apply your own filter to this list, as various religions have different legal statuses in some of these places. But this list should be a good place to start looking for culturally-diverse cities you might want to visit.

Upvote:1

No India on the list. That's bull. I live in New Delhi , the capital of India and believe you me every part of it is diverse. India as a country is diverse. You will find Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Jains. Tibet's government in exile, the administrative operations are from India. The dalai lama temple is in India. There are loads of other examples I can give. In short, the most religiously diverse country in the world is INDIA.

You will find A Church, A Temple , A Mosque, A Gurdwara in every city of the country.

Not to forget, INDIA is the birthplace of 4 major religions : Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Apart from this, we have roughly 20% of population to be Muslims. Also, roughly 5% of total population are Christians and let me stress that the North Eastern States of India namely Mizoram and Manipur have more than 90% of population to be christians.

Upvote:2

With regard to the most religiously diverse country and your goal of seeing the most religions in a short time, probably Singapore is your best bet. It likely has the most distinct and heavily-practiced religions per km², amongst all the countries of the world (though probably not amongst all the cities of the world).

Upvote:4

Go to London. In the metropolitan area (covered well by cheap public transport) you can find many, many different religions. Christianity (many different branches of), Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hidus, etc, etc, etc.

Also, any big metropolis will be the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_London

Upvote:10

While you've already received some nice suggestions I'm quite surprised no one mentioned Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The old city is divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters and religion is a very big deal there and one of the most impressive city I've ever visited. The old city being smaller than the cities mentioned by others and packed with so many different religion I feel it's a better candidate than most of those cosmopolitan cities.

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