We all know the story of Genesis, Adam and Eve, and the Garden of Eden, so you’ll recall that in the beginning, God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. It appears that Christianity is not the only faith that embraces these words.
Christians are currently the largest religious population on Earth, but Muslims are gaining ground. In fact, Muslim births will exceed Christian births within the next 20 years. Pew Research Center just released a new projection stating that Muslim births will outnumber Christian births by the year 2035, marking the first time in history that has ever occurred. By 2060, the global populations of Christians and Muslims are expected to equal each other, at around 3 billion each.
Christianity will experience net losses of followers in the next few years. While 5 million people are expected to convert to Christianity by 2020, 13 million will leave the faith, according to the latest Pew projections. While religious conversions are a factor, most of the population growth will occur through birth. Past data shows this trend; between 2010 and 2015, most population change in all religions came from “natural increase”, births minus deaths.
Pew has issued several reports about the changing state of global religion, specifically focusing on how both Christianity and Islam will change by the year 2050.
Today, Muslim families are giving birth to more children than any other religious group in the world. On average, they have about 2.9 children; Christians average in at 2.6. Over time, this will result in a 70 percent increase of the Muslim faithful—a whopping 70 percent growth in overall global population between 2015 and 2060.
Christianity will experience the most growth in sub-Saharan Africa, which is projected to be 42 percent Christian by 2060; that is a huge 26 percent increase from 2015. Again, the driver behind the growth will be high birth rates in those countries. The African continent will double its population by 2050; 663 million will be children. A conversion battle of sorts is expected in Nigeria, which is currently half Christian and half Muslim.
Millennials will be the most surprised group, because they envision a world that will become less religious—not more. But there will not be significant enough population growth among atheists and people with no religious affiliation to outperform Christians and Muslims.
Another surprise is that the current worldwide Muslim population is more widespread than most people realize. Americans in particular are not knowledgeable about these facts.
In 2010, Muslims totaled 1.6 billion. Most people, particularly Americans, associate Islam only with Middle Eastern countries, but nearly two thirds (62%) of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region, and more Muslims live in India and Pakistan than in the Middle East and North Africa (344 million compared with 317 million). The Middle East and North Africa do however have the highest concentration (per capita) of Muslims—around 93 percent.
You might be surprised to learn that Muslims are the majority population in nearly 50 countries, with Indonesia leading the way at 87 percent, or nearly 210 million. Comparatively, very few Muslims live in the United States—only 0.2 percent. Projecting forward, Muslims will account for nearly 30 percent of the worldwide population by 2050.
~ Christian Patriot Daily
