Share of Christians shrinking worldwide – Muslims on the rise

Christians are still the largest religious community worldwide, but their share of the total population is declining. According to various surveys, the proportion of Christians in the population shrank by 1.8 percentage points to 28.8 per cent between 2010 and 2020, according to an analysis published on Monday evening by the Washington-based Pew Research Center. In the same period, the proportion of Muslims rose by 1.8 percentage points to 25.6 per cent.

Otherwise, only the religiously unaffiliated recorded stronger growth than the global population: In 2020, they made up 24.2 per cent of society, 0.9 percentage points more than in 2010. The research centre analysed over 2,700 official surveys and polls for the statistics.

347 million more Muslims

In absolute figures, all Christian denominations together totalled 2.3 billion people in 2020. They grew by 121.6 million in the decade under review, but not as much as the population as a whole. Muslims grew by 346.8 million, reaching the 2 billion mark. The third largest group is people with no religious affiliation - 1.9 billion people worldwide, an increase of 270.1 million in ten years. Buddhists were the only community that also shrank in absolute numbers: by 18.6 million to 324 million worldwide.

According to the study, the growth of the religiously unaffiliated reflects the migration away from Christian churches. Within Christianity, the global centre of gravity has also shifted: most believers no longer live in Europe, but in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the researchers, Islam benefits from a young age structure and a high fertility rate.

According to the data, Christians made up 67.1 per cent of the population in Europe in 2020, 7.6 percentage points less than ten years earlier. The proportion of non-religious people rose to 25.3 per cent, an increase of 6.6 percentage points. The Muslim community comprised 6 per cent of the population, 0.7 per cent more than in 2010. (KNA)