Global Religious Demographics: Pew Research on Shifting Affiliations and Growth

Global Religious Landscape Shifts

• 📊 A new Pew Research Center analysis reveals significant changes in global religious demographics between 2010 and 2020.
• 📈 Muslims experienced the fastest growth, increasing by 347 million people over the decade, surpassing the growth of all non-Muslim religions combined.
• 🌍 This growth is attributed to demographic factors: Muslims are, on average, a decade younger than non-Muslims and have higher birth rates.

Rise of the Unaffiliated

• 👤 Nearly a quarter of the world's population now identifies with no religion.
• 📉 This demographic is growing as more individuals shed their childhood religious affiliations.
• 💡 For every one person who joins a religion after not growing up with one, 3.2 people who grew up with a religion have shed that identity.
• 🌎 This trend is observed globally, with increases in the unaffiliated share seen in countries like the US, Australia, Europe, and Namibia.

Religious Switching and Convergence

• ✝️ Christianity, while still the largest religion, saw its share of the global population drop from 31% to 29% between 2010 and 2020.
• ☪️ The Muslim share of the world's population increased from 24% to 26% during the same period, indicating a convergence in size between the two largest religious groups.
• 🔄 A significant trend is religious switching, with 40 countries showing a drop of at least five percentage points in the Christian population share, many of whom are joining the unaffiliated ranks.
• 📍 For instance, Australia saw a 20-point drop in its Christian population share, and the US saw a 14-point drop.