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Rabat – A new report by the Pew Research Center detailed changes in the world’s religious landscape from 2010 to 2020. While Christianity remains the largest religion globally, Islam is the fastest-growing religious group during this period.
The number of Christians worldwide grew by 122 million to reach about 2.3 billion people in 2020. However, Christians did not grow as fast as the world’s total population, causing their share of the global population to drop from 30.6% in 2010 to 28.8% in 2020.
This decline, the report says, is mainly because many people, especially in Europe and the Americas, are leaving Christianity. For example, Christian populations fell significantly in countries like the United States, Australia, and several European nations.
One major factor behind this trend is religious “disaffiliation,” where people stop identifying with Christianity. This has caused the Christian share to shrink in 41 countries, with declines ranging from 5 to 20 percentage points.
Despite this, Christianity is growing in some places, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This region now has the largest number of Christians in the world, 30.7% of all Christians live there, surpassing Europe. The growth in Africa is largely due to higher birth rates compared to Europe, where Christian numbers are declining.
Islam, fastest-growing religion
Islam witnessed the largest increase in numbers, growing by 347 million people between 2010 and 2020. This growth is faster than any other religion, and as a result, Muslims now make up 25.6% of the world’s population, up 1.8 percentage points from 2010.
The main reasons for this rapid growth are natural population increases. “Increases in the global Muslim population are largely due to Muslims having a relatively young age structure and high fertility rate, two characteristics that result in natural population growth,” reads the report.
Only a few countries saw large changes in Muslim populations as a share of their total populations, with some growth in places like Kazakhstan and Lebanon.
While Christianity’s global share is declining, Islam’s share is rising, and together they make up more than half of the world’s population. Religiously unaffiliated people, also called “nones,” are another fast-growing group, especially in countries like the United States and parts of Europe.
The report also shows that religious changes are connected to demographic factors such as age, birth rates, and migration patterns. For example, regions like Sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region are increasing their share of the world’s population, which influences the distribution of religious groups.
