Islam Fastest-Growing Religion In World: 6 Key Takeaways From New Pew Study
Last Updated:
Islam is fastest-growing religion in world, with their population increasing by 347 million between 2010 and 2020, new Pew study revealed. It has listed data on other faiths also.
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world, and the world's Muslim population grew by 347 million over the last 10 years, while Hindus are the fourth largest group with 14.9% of the global population, according to a new Pew Research Center study.
Pew's Global Religious Landscape study, released on June 9, measured the evolution of the global religious population between 2010 and 2020. The new study reveals how population growth influenced the global religious landscape. This year's edition is the second report of religious groups, which was started in 2010.
Conrad Hackett, a senior demographer at Pew Research Center, said that Muslims are having children at a greater rate than people in the community are dying.
'Very little of the change in Muslim population size is a result of people becoming Muslim as adults or leaving Islam as adults," he said.
Muslims are primarily concentrated in regions witnessing high population growth, such as the Middle East-North Africa region. They represent 94.2% of the population in this region, whereas they are 33% in sub-Saharan Africa. Their number grew in large numbers in the Asia Pacific region, where their percentage increased by 16.2% between 2010 and 2020.
Christianity Grows But Declines Overall In World Population: The survey showed that Christianity grew by 122 million people during that period; however, it declined as an overall slice of the global population. Despite the dip, Christianity remains the world's largest religion, with 2.3 billion people following the religion, which constitutes 29% of the world's population.
Christianity declined by 1.8%, primarily due to growth among the non-Christian population. The decline was witnessed in Europe, North America, the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand, the survey showed.
It remains the majority faith in the world, except for the Asia-Pacific and Middle East-North Africa regions.
Religiously Unaffiliated People: After Islam and Christianity, the third largest number of people in the world are those unaffiliated with any religion, with 24.2% of the world's population following this trend, according to the survey.
Those people who left religion have severely impacted the proportion of the world's Christian population.
Buddhists Impacted By Religious Unaffiliation: Buddhists are another group affected by people moving away from religion in East Asia. Between 2010 and 2020, more people left Buddhism than joined it. It was the only religion in the region that had fewer followers in 2020 than in 2010, with a drop of 19 million people, according to the study.
However, the study also says that these numbers may not show the full picture. That's because many people who follow Buddhist traditions or practices may not officially identify as Buddhist.
Hindu Population Fourth Largest In World: According to the study, Hindus represent 14.9% of the world's population and are the fourth largest group in the world. The majority of Hindus reside in India (95%), and their number increased between 2010 and 2020 by 62% in the Middle East-North Africa region, primarily because of migration.
In North America, the population of Hindus grew by 55%.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Time of India
Ranchi News
Help to meritorious student with cash amount Friends of Weaker Society awarded a Rs 28,100 scholarship to Mantasha Anjum of Doranda, who scored 91.8% in JAC Matric 2025, for admission to Nirmala College. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Her father, a milk vendor, couldn't afford the fee. Society patron Nizamuddin Zubairi presented the cheque. Another student, Sadaf Firdaus, received Rs 5,000. According to locals, the initiative supports meritorious Muslim students from financially weak backgrounds. Scooter used as environmental awareness campaign A local artist has transformed a scooter into a vibrant canvas, promoting environmental awareness through creative expression. The artwork features birds and leaves, symbolizing nature's beauty and the need to preserve it. This unique initiative also highlights local art culture. The eye-catching scooter has quickly become a community attraction, inspiring conversations around ecology and creativity on the streets. CM remains open to listen to citizens remains open to listening to citizens, whether during project visits or at his residence. He regularly meets locals through the Janta Darbar, addressing their concerns and resolving issues promptly. As per locals, his door is always open, reflecting his commitment to public service and direct dialogue. Bhartiya Ekta Committee marks 33rd anniv The Bhartiya Ekta Committee marked its 33rd anniversary by distributing clothes and sweets to the needy near St. Maria Maha Church, Mission Chowk. Founder President Ghulam Mustafa emphasized unity and humanity, promising blankets and dry rations soon. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "Serving humanity is divine service," he said. Items distributed included coats, jackets, sarees, and sherwanis. Mustafa urged all communities to uphold compassion. Local artist transforms scooter into vibrant canvas A local artist has transformed a scooter into a vibrant canvas, promoting environmental awareness through creative expression. The artwork features birds and leaves, symbolizing nature's beauty and the need to preserve it. This unique initiative also highlights local art culture. The eye-catching scooter has quickly become a community attraction, inspiring conversations around ecology and creativity on the streets (Contributed by Mukesh Kumar Bhatt and Kritika Tiwary)
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Time of India
Muslim man takes care of Hindu woman, performs last rites as per her religion
Kanpur: Showing a unique humanitarian gesture, a Muslim man took care of a Hindu woman during her illness and after she passed away, he performed her last rites as per the Hindu traditions. Waqar Ali, 60, a native of Usri Villa village in Rasoolabad, Auraiya, relocated to Aseni village of Dibiyapur 30 years ago. He lived in a deteriorated building of an old cooperative society due to housing constraints. Here he also provided care for a destitute woman, Bhagwati, for 30 years, but her health deteriorated over time, and on Saturday, 55-year-old Bhagwati breathed her last. Understanding the significance of religious customs in final rites, he consulted with the Hindu community. After learning about the situation, members of the Hindu community supported his efforts and together, they conducted Bhagwati's last rites at Dibiyapur crematorium according to Hindu traditions. The funeral procession and rituals were also completed in the Hindu manner. The incident gained attention when Waqar Ali conducted the final rites. He revealed that he initially took Bhagwati's body to the Muslim graveyard. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Irish homeowners eligible for solar 'bonus' if they live in these eircodes Activ8 Learn More Undo The Muslim community members advised him that since there was no marriage or religious conversion, she remained Hindu, and suggested performing Hindu final rites instead. Mutawalli Masid Qadri of Dibiyapur said that Waqar Ahmed's care for a Hindu woman and the cooperative arrangement of her final rites demonstrated humanitarian values. He clarified that such cremation would not have been permissible had she converted to Islam.
Mint
17 hours ago
- Mint
Manu Joseph: Why faith losing its hold won't really change the world
A new Pew report shows that the number of people who have quit religion has risen. In such reports, people who say they have no religious affiliation are endearingly called 'Nones.' Between 2010 and 2020, Nones grew by 270 million, second only to those who identify as Muslim. There are 1.9 billion Nones in the world. So roughly every fourth human is a None, with their share of the population having risen over that decade from 23.3% to 24.2.%. I suspect this news was received by atheists and their spiritual cousins who say stuff like, 'I believe in a force" and other kinds of Nones as a reaffirmation of their superior inner lives. They may have felt the world is finally becoming safer. More sensible. More like them. They might be wrong. Also Read: Manu Joseph: How could a startup religion succeed in ancient times? This report on the 'global religious landscape' was published by Pew Research Centre, a US-based think-tank that is deemed particularly reputable when its findings align with one's own work,ld view. It is one of the world's most cited sources when it comes to global statistics, chiefly for the rigour of its process. This report, for instance, compiled data from dozens of countries, using national census data, demographic studies and other large-scale surveys. According to the report, Islam is the fastest growing faith. Between 2010 and 2020, the Muslim population of the world grew by about 347 million, almost entirely through births. Most major religions grew in absolute numbers in that decade, but Islam alone increased its share of the world population, from 23.9% to 25.6%. The Hindu share remained stable at around 15% of the world, while that of Christians reduced by nearly 2%. Apart from Muslims, the only other major group that increased its share of the world population was the Nones. This is the only group that has grown by conscious decision, as Pew notes that religious conversion did not contribute significantly to the population growth of any religion. Nones do reproduce, but their children are not guaranteed to be Nones. Hundreds of millions gave up religious affiliation. Not just that, Nones are almost always adults, presumably because only then can they find the freedom to extricate themselves from religion. Otherwise, in matters of faith, parents usually act as prison guards. So, even without children in their count, Nones grew over the 2010s. Also Read: Religiosity impacts perceptions of crony capitalism within the country All this data may have brought satisfaction not only to Nones, but also to many religious people after they ascertained that it is not their faith that's leaking followers. Take away their own gods, and nearly everyone is a None. As a piece of internet folk wisdom goes—often mis-attributed to famous atheists but likely coined by a software engineer named Stephen F. Roberts—'I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. " But the joy curdles when you look closer. The rise of the unaffiliated is not a global wave of reason sweeping across the world. It's mostly a continuation of old patterns in predictable places: China, where religion has long been shunned by the state; Western Christian nations, where belief had already aged into tradition; Japan, where Buddhism became more of a general philosophy. In such places, people stopped believing in divinity long ago—they just didn't get around to changing their religious status on census forms. China alone accounts for 67% of all Nones. Among the rest are 101 million Americans and 73 million Japanese (about 57% of Japanese adults identify as Nones) and West Europeans. Asian Buddhist regions and affluent Christian nations have traditionally been places where Nones hailed from. Also Read: On link between religiosity and well-being, India is an outlier The report does have minor surprises in the form of Namibia where the share of Nones grew from 0.2% to 5.6%, and Brazil where the share of Nones rose to 13.5%, up 5.4 percentage points. But generally, what is clear in the Pew report is that major religions that hold sway in some of the most volatile regions of the world are not in a decline. Faiths that play a significant role in shaping the identity of people, like Islam and Hinduism, are not in a decline. In fact, even though Christianity registered a decline, it has resurged as a political identity in the most powerful nation on Earth—the US. I do not believe that this resurgence is driven by a rise in faith in God. That brings us to the core of why it would be naive to see the rise of Nones as a hint of a better world to come. Just because a person does not believe in magic, it does not mean he is not given to magical thinking. Also Read: Today's dichotomy between religious identity and faith The age of belief may be ending, but the age of identity is only beginning. We see this all the time. Rich kids from poor countries go West, say posh things, but their concerns, though couched as humane, are usually about their own community or religious group. The atheist Islamist exists. The religionless Hindu nationalist exists. The religiously unaffiliated are often over-affiliated with a group. In fact, an underrated quality of those who believe in God is that they, ironically, understand the emotions of others who believe in a different supernatural. For instance, when the Sabarimala temple controversy broke out among Hindu conservatives, some devout Malayalee Christians too were enraged. They were sympathetic to ancient tenets of faith that are hard to defend against rationality. So yes, the Nones are growing. But let us not confuse that with the rise of reason. Divinity may be departing in some places, but the flags remain. And the chants and the wounds. Always, the wounds, they remain. The author is a journalist, novelist, and the creator of the Netflix series, 'Decoupled'
