![]() ![]() But, as a share of all the people in the world, those with no religious affiliation are projected to decline from 16% in 2010 to 13% by the middle of this century.Īt the same time, however, the unaffiliated are expected to continue to increase as a share of the population in much of Europe and North America. ![]() 5 By 2050, the unaffiliated population is expected to exceed 1.2 billion. In 2010, censuses and surveys indicate, there were about 1.1 billion atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion. Similarly, the religiously unaffiliated population is projected to shrink as a percentage of the global population, even though it will increase in absolute number. Each of these groups is projected to make up a smaller percentage of the world’s population in 2050 than it did in 2010. While growing in absolute size, however, folk religions, Judaism and “other religions” (the umbrella category considered as a whole) will not keep pace with global population growth. Jews, the smallest religious group for which separate projections were made, are expected to grow 16%, from a little less than 14 million in 2010 to 16.1 million worldwide in 2050.Īdherents of various folk religions – including African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions – are projected to increase by 11%, from 405 million to nearly 450 million.Īnd all other religions combined – an umbrella category that includes Baha’is, Jains, Sikhs, Taoists and many smaller faiths – are projected to increase 6%, from a total of approximately 58 million to more than 61 million over the same period. Worldwide, the Hindu population is projected to rise by 34%, from a little over 1 billion to nearly 1.4 billion, roughly keeping pace with overall population growth. ![]() The global Buddhist population is expected to be fairly stable because of low fertility rates and aging populations in countries such as China, Thailand and Japan. With the exception of Buddhists, all of the world’s major religious groups are poised for at least some growth in absolute numbers in the coming decades. The number of Christians also is projected to rise, but more slowly, at about the same rate (35%) as the global population overall.Īs a result, according to the Pew Research projections, by 2050 there will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30% of the population) and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31%), possibly for the first time in history. 1 Over that same period, Muslims – a comparatively youthful population with high fertility rates – are projected to increase by 73%. ![]() Between 20, the world’s total population is expected to rise to 9.3 billion, a 35% increase. If current demographic trends continue, however, Islam will nearly catch up by the middle of the 21st century. Islam was second, with 1.6 billion adherents, or 23% of the global population. The projections take into account the current size and geographic distribution of the world’s major religions, age differences, fertility and mortality rates, international migration and patterns in conversion.Īs of 2010, Christianity was by far the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth. These are among the global religious trends highlighted in new demographic projections by the Pew Research Center. Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa.than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion.India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the United States and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population.The number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world.Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion. The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world’s major religions, as well as by people switching faiths. ![]()
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