Which are the fastest growing religions in Europe and the world?
Since the 19th century, the religious demographics throughout the world has changed dramatically. Countries with historically largest Christian population are experiencing decline in number of people following this religion whereas a large population of Africa, with very high birth rates, has converted to Christianity, resulting in overall increase in number of Christians. Islam is still growing at a tremendous pace to become the most dominant religion and even surpass Christianity in terms of absolute number of followers. Very few popular religions like Buddhism are experiencing an overall decline in followers.
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Christianity has been reigning as the largest religion in the religious landscape of the world because of early adoption and popularity in Western and European countries. If reports and surveys are to believed, world’s second most largest religion, Islam, will have most number of followers by the end of this century. Between 2010 and 2050, Christian population is expected to lose about 60 million people to agnosticism and atheism.
Religious demographics of the world is rapidly changing owing to some major factors like high fertility rates (particularly for some specific religions like Islam), conversion rate, and increasing atheism.
As of 2010, Christianity was the largest religion, with approximately 2.2 billion adherents, forming almost 31% of total world population. Christianity will not be able to keep up with the pace of Islam because of two major factors: average fertility rate for Islamic population is above world average and the second factor is growing atheism among the masses in European and Western countries that have the largest Christian population. According to reports, 2.4% of Americans in 2012 were Atheists and atheism was growing at a rate of 0.8% from 2007 to 2012. This growth of atheism in North America is significantly contributing to the decline in growth of Christianity (By the way, you might be interested in reading our article about the 10 most religious cities in America).
Islam will experience most growth, in terms of absolute number of followers, over next few decades. The Pew Research report clearly indicates that the steep rise in Muslim population throughout the world is dominated by two factors: relatively higher share of younger population (more than 1 Muslim in 3 is under the age of 15) and high fertility rates. Muslims have the highest fertility rates averaging about 3.1 children per woman that is much higher than replacement level of 2.1.
Nevertheless, the fastest growing religion in the world isn’t Islam. Check out:
5. Judaism
The average birth rate for Jews in Israel stands at 3 children per woman that is well above the world average of 1.7-1.9. By 2050, 51 percent of Jews will live in the Middle East – a majority of them in Israel and almost 37 percent in North America, if the statistics are to be believed. Jews Population in European countries will decrease at tremendous pace considering the fact that average fertility rate of Jews in Europe is 1.8 that is below the average replacement level (2.3) required for the stable population.
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4. Hinduism
Hindu population, with the majority of its followers in Asia, is expected to increase from estimated 1 billion to 1.4 billion i.e. overall 34% rate of growth. With most of the Hindu population living in India, this religion is expected to keep up its current rate of growth owing to high fertility rates in suburban and undeveloped parts of India. Though Hindu population is relatively low in European countries, it is expected to increase slowly in the near future.
Check out our article about the 11 countries with the highest Hindu population, too.
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3. Christianity
Though Christianity has most number of followers throughout the world and will dominate religion demography for the next few decades, eventually Islam will be the leader in terms of absolute number of followers, if the current trend continues. Despite declining growth rate of Christianity in Europe and Western Nations, interestingly its popularity is increasing in Africa and global south and that is the major factor contributing to increased growth rate of the Christian population. Thirty five percent growth of Christian population from 2010 to 2050 will largely be overshadowed by 73% growth of Muslims over the same period.
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2. Islam
The world Muslim population that was around 1.6 billion in 2010 will grow by an astounding 73% to 2.8 billion by 2050 according to research conducted by Pew Research Center. According to the same report Islamic population could also surpass Christian followers by the end of this century. Also, more than 10% of the European population will be Muslim, by 2050, if the current trend in growth of religion continues. Muslims will replace Jews as the second most practiced religion in the US by 2050.
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1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church)
According to its own estimates, Mormon church reported a 30% growth rate between 1990 and 2008. Assuming that this growth rate is accurate and stays the same, Mormon population will grow by 79% between 2010 and 2050. Though this growth rate is debatable and no proof exists to support this claim of Mormon church, we used this number to rank The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints in our list of the fastest growing religions in Europe and the world. As per some other sources the growth rate between 1990 and 2008 was 16%, so based on this number the Mormon population will grow by 39% between 2010 and 2050, making it the second fastest growing religion (so, you decide which number to believe). Russia experienced an astounding 83 percent increase in total Mormon membership from 1999 to 2009. If you want to learn something more about this religion check out our article about the 11 countries with the highest Mormon population.
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