A Muslim pilgrim reads a replica of the Quran on the Grand Mosque throughout the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Amr Nabil/AP
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Amr Nabil/AP
Muslims are the fastest-growing religion group, adopted by the religiously unaffiliated, in line with a brand new Pew Analysis Heart research measuring the evolution of the worldwide non secular inhabitants between 2010 and 2020.
Christianity grew by 122 million members in that decade, however declined as an general slice of the world’s inhabitants. Nonetheless, Christianity stays the world’s largest faith, with 2.3 billion believers — almost 29% of the world’s inhabitants.
Pew’s World Non secular Panorama research, launched on Monday (June 9), is the second version of a demographic report of spiritual teams, began in 2010.
“We take a look at the demographic traits of those teams, their age construction, what number of kids they’re having, how a lot training they’ve, as a result of these demographic traits have an effect on the long run dimension of the non secular teams,” Conrad Hackett, a senior demographer at Pew Analysis Heart, advised RNS.
The report reveals how non secular disaffiliation and inhabitants development influenced the worldwide non secular panorama.
The world’s Muslim inhabitants elevated by 347 million individuals over 10 years — greater than all the opposite religions mixed — primarily as a consequence of pure demographic development.
“Muslims are having kids at a better quantity than Muslims are dying,” Hackett mentioned. “Little or no of the change in Muslim inhabitants dimension is a results of individuals changing into Muslim as adults or leaving Islam as adults.”
Researchers relied on 2,700 information sources, together with nationwide censuses, demographic surveys, inhabitants surveys and inhabitants registers, to doc the non secular affiliations of 100,000 individuals throughout 201 international locations. Whereas questions diversified from one survey to a different, most members had been requested concerning the faith with which they recognized.
The research additionally analyzed non secular information at the side of information on fertility and mortality charges and age distribution to measure demographic adjustments between 2010 and 2020. It additionally famous delays within the assortment of information attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Muslims are largely concentrated in areas with excessive inhabitants development, just like the Center East-North Africa area, the place they characterize 94.2% of the inhabitants, and sub-Saharan Africa, the place they characterize 33%. The Muslim inhabitants grew probably the most within the Asia Pacific area, which is residence to the most important Muslim inhabitants, growing by 16.2% between 2010 and 2020.
In the meantime, Christianity declined by 1.8%, primarily as a consequence of bigger inhabitants development amongst non-Christians. It steadily declined in Europe, North America, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.
Christianity stays the bulk religion across the globe, except the Asia-Pacific and Center East-North Africa areas. It is now probably the most geographically dispersed non secular group, the research reveals.
Religiously unaffiliated individuals at the moment are the third largest group behind Christians and Muslims, with 24.2% figuring out as such.
“This sample is widespread in European and North American international locations, in addition to in Australia and New Zealand, the place many individuals who had been raised Christian not declare any non secular affiliation,” reads the report.
These leaving faith vastly impacted the proportion of the world’s Christian inhabitants. “Christians are seeing lots of people who’re raised within the religion altering as adults to individuals who do not determine with any faith,” Hackett mentioned.
The research marks the primary time Pew has tracked non secular switching patterns, aggregating information from 117 international locations of individuals ages 18 to 54 relating to the religion they had been born into and the faith they determine with as adults.
In North America, the religiously unaffiliated inhabitants elevated by 13 proportion factors between 2010 and 2020, reaching 30.2%. Nones grew by 4.1 proportion factors in Latin America-Caribbean over the identical interval, and by 6.6 proportion factors in Europe, reaching 25.3%.
Asia Pacific is residence to the most important religiously unaffiliated inhabitants, with 78% of the nones inhabitants residing within the area. The vast majority of the world’s nones inhabitants, 67%, lives in China. Nevertheless, Hackett famous the problem of capturing the complexity of religiosity in China, on which Pew has performed analysis.
Buddhists are one other group impacted by non secular disaffiliation within the East-Asian area, with extra individuals leaving the religion than becoming a member of between 2010 and 2020. It’s the solely non secular group that has fewer members in 2020 than in 2010, having declined by 19 million individuals, in line with the info.
Nevertheless, the research notes that the Buddhist inhabitants estimates do not absolutely seize the affect of the religion, as many Buddhist respondents might not determine as Buddhist regardless that they have interaction in Buddhist practices.
Hindus, representing 14.9% of the world’s inhabitants, are the fourth largest group on this planet. The vast majority of Hindus reside in India (95%). And between 2010 and 2020, the variety of Hindus elevated by 62% within the Center East-North Africa area, largely as a consequence of migration. In North America, the Hindu inhabitants elevated by 55%.
The world’s Jewish inhabitants, the smallest non secular group analyzed within the report, grew by 6% between 2010 and 2020, from about 14 million to fifteen million individuals. Jews characterize 0.2% of the worldwide inhabitants, which remained stagnant over 10 years, and 45.9% of Jews reside in Israel — the very best proportion in any nation.
This story was produced by a collaboration between NPR and Faith Information Service.
