Islam will be the largest religion by 2070: study

Islam is projected to grow more than twice as fast as any other major religion over the next half century, while Christianity will lose majority religious status in countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Australia.A slight shift by one major world religion to numerical dominance may not, by itself, create problems, but underlying […]

Islam is projected to grow more than twice as fast as any other major religion over the next half century, while Christianity will lose majority religious status in countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
A slight shift by one major world religion to numerical dominance may not, by itself, create problems, but underlying factors of rapid population growth in poor countries can drive economic hardship, migration and political unrest, says David Voas, professor of population studies at England’s Institute for Social and Economic Research. Such conditions can give rise to extremist violence, he says.
“The very rapid growth of population, combined with limited opportunities even for the educated young people, but particularly for less educated ones, has created social and therefore political tensions and that has fueled things like immigration to Western countries, political upheaval,” Voas say.
The world’s two largest religions will be near parity by 2050. Christians are predicted to be 31.4% of the planet’s population vs. 29.7% who follow Islam, researchers say. Christians made up the same 31.4% in 2010; Muslims 23.2%.
“We can be quite confident that Muslims are going to grow rapidly in the decades ahead,” said Conrad Hackett, demographer and lead author of the report.
The engine of growth for both Christianity and Islam will be sub-Saharan Africa where high fertility and large Muslim and Christian populations will increase global numbers for both religions, Pew demographers say.
Christianity will remain the dominant religion for the United States but lose some of its share to the unaffiliated – those who claim no particular religion or who are atheists or agnostic. By 2050, one in four Americans will fall into this non-religious category, up from 16.4% in 2010, the analysis shows.
While the populations of nearly all the world’s religions will grow, youth and high fertility among Muslims will fuel a dramatic 73% jump in numbers in just over a generation.
For followers of Islam to outnumber Christians by 2070 would be a milestone for mankind, many scholars say. Pew researchers say experts they consulted assert that since Christianity began six centuries before Islam, followers of Christ have always outnumbered Muslims.
Other findings in the study:
• Muslims will make up 10.2% of Europe’s population by 2050, up from 5.9% in 2010. Their percentage within the U.S. will more than double to 2.1% and they will for the first time outnumber Jews in America.
• Christianity is expected to suffer the largest net loss among those switching beliefs by 2050, losing 106 million, mostly to those unaffiliated with religion.
– Source: USA Today