Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion but despite the increasing numbers, Christians will still outnumber Muslims in 2050, a new report has found.
Religion, despite its decline in the West as the map above shows, is proliferating across the world – by 2050, Muslims will make up 10 per cent of Europe’s population. By 2100, Muslims will outnumber Christians globally, Pew believe.
“By the year 2100, about 1 per cent more of the world’s population would be Muslim (35 per cent) than Christian (34 per cent),” the authors wrote.
According to the Pew Research Center, the religiously unaffiliated – referring to atheists, agnostics and other people who do not identify with a religion – are declining as a share of the population.
In the map above, readers can find out the percentage of individuals following Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and folk religions (which include African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions) as well as those who do not follow a religion.
All faiths, according to Pew, will see an increase in their share except Buddhism – because of low fertility and ageing population among its followers.
The three maps below show which parts of the world the three biggest monotheistic faiths are adhered to most.
Islam will be the largest religion in the world in 2100:
It is widely known that Islam is increasing globally but despite this increase, by 2050, only two more countries (51 in total) will have a population of Muslims that is more than 50 per cent.
By 2050, the Pew report predicted that 30 per cent (2.8 billion) of the population will identify themselves as Muslim compared to 31 per cent (2.9 billion) identifying themselves as Christian. In Europe, it is suggested that by 2050, 10 per cent of the continent will be Muslim and in the US, it will become the second-largest faith.
This significant projected growth is largely due to the young age and high fertility rate of Muslims relative to other religious groups… Muslims have higher fertility levels than the world’s overall population between 2010 and 2015.”
Also, Muslim Population By Country
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| Rank | Country | Population Who Identifies as Muslim |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indonesia | 227,226,404 |
| 2 | Pakistan | 204,194,370 |
| 3 | India | 189,000,000 |
| 4 | Bangladesh | 148,607,000 |
| 5 | Nigeria | 95,316,131 |
| 6 | Egypt | 87,336,965 |
| 7 | Iran | 81,529,435 |
| 8 | Turkey | 80,683,525 |
| 9 | Algeria | 40,559,749 |
| 10 | Sudan | 39,027,950 |
| 11 | Iraq | 38,800,190 |
| 12 | Afghanistan | 34,022,437 |
| 13 | Morocco | 33,646,788 |
| 14 | Saudi Arabia | 31,878,000 |
| 15 | Ethiopia | 28,680,000 |
| 16 | Yemen | 27,784,498 |
| 17 | Uzbekistan | 26,550,000 |
| 18 | China | 24,690,000 |
| 19 | Niger | 19,502,214 |
| 20 | Tanzania | 19,426,814 |
| 21 | Malaysia | 19,237,161 |
| 22 | Syria | 18,930,000 |
| 23 | Mali | 15,667,704 |
| 24 | Senegal | 14,584,931 |
| 25 | Kazakhstan | 13,026,802 |
| 26 | Burkina Faso | 11,270,000 |
| 27 | Tunisia | 11,190,000 |
| 28 | Côte d’Ivoire | 10,375,283 |
| 29 | Jordan | 9,961,123 |
| 30 | Azerbaijan | 9,872,765 |
| 31 | Russia | 9,400,000 |
| 32 | Somalia | 9,231,000 |
| 33 | Guinea | 8,693,000 |
| 34 | Congo | 8,330,115 |
| 35 | Chad | 7,827,653 |
| 36 | Tajikistan | 7,621,700 |
| 37 | Libya | 6,325,000 |
| 38 | Mozambique | 5,340,000 |
| 39 | Uganda | 5,030,000 |
| 40 | Philippines | 5,000,000 |
| 41 | Cameroon | 4,940,000 |
| 42 | Kyrgyzstan | 4,927,000 |
| 43 | Ghana | 4,914,000 |
| 44 | Turkmenistan | 4,830,000 |
| 45 | France | 4,697,431 |
| 46 | United Arab Emirates | 4,615,081 |
| 47 | Palestinian Territories | 4,298,000 |
| 48 | Mauritania | 4,171,633 |
| 49 | Sierra Leone | 4,171,000 |
| 50 | Thailand | 3,952,000 |