Alwaght - A fresh report has revealed
that Islam is expected to grow faster than any other major religion in the
world, surpassing Christianity as the largest religion by 2070.
The study, published by the Pew Research Center on
Thursday, says Christians will remain the largest religious group,
increasing to 2.92 billion adherents by 2050 at the current demographic trend.
Meanwhile, Muslims will reach 2.76 billion in 2050,
making the two faith groups about 30 percent of the world population by
mid-century, the study said.
By 2070, however, the Muslims are
projected to outnumber the Christians. By 2100, about 35 percent of the world’s
population will be Muslims. That will be one percent more than the Christian
population.
The report also noted that much of the growth of both
Christianity and Islam will occur in Africa.
Approximately 40 percent of Christians are expected
to be located in Africa by 2050, while they will no longer be a majority in the
UK, France and Australia.
However, Muslims will also increase in number to
comprise 10 percent of Europe's population and will outnumber Jews in the US by
2050.
Worldwide, the number of Jews is expected to grow by
about 16 percent to 16.1 million, the report said.
India is expected to surpass Indonesia as the nation
with the world’s largest Muslim population, though it will retain a Hindu
majority by 2050. Globally, Hindus will grow to reach 1.4 billion people.
The number of Buddhists is predicted to level off,
but will comprise a smaller share of the world's inhabitants due to overall
global population growth.
Atheists, agnostics and those who disassociate with a
religion will increase in much of Europe and North America, but globally will
drop from about 16 percent to 13 percent of the population.
Researchers attribute Islam’s drive in global growth
to its followers being younger and having more children than members of other
faiths.
