The American Pew Research Center has published data on the religious composition of the planet's population, according to which Islam has become the fastest growing religion in the world. From 2010 to 2020, the number of Muslims increased by 347 million people, and their share in the world population increased by 1.8 percentage points to 25.6%, gazeta.ru writes.
Christianity, remaining the largest religion, showed mixed dynamics. The absolute number of Christians increased by 121.6 million people and reached 2.3 billion, but their share in the total population of the planet decreased to 28.8%, which is 1.8% less than the figure ten years ago. Researchers explain this by the fact that Christianity is growing more slowly than the growth rate of the world population.
The category of people who do not identify with any religion has demonstrated significant growth. The share of the non-religious population is approaching a quarter of the world's inhabitants. At the same time, Buddhism has become the only major religion with negative dynamics - the number of its followers continues to decline.
The study's findings are based on an analysis of data from 2.7 thousand different studies and surveys. Experts attribute the observed changes mainly to demographic factors: Muslim countries have a high birth rate, while in Christian and Buddhist regions it is declining. The data obtained reflect long-term trends that may significantly change the religious map of the world in the coming decades.
