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While Christianity remains the largest global religion, recent data indicates a shift in its demographic presence. A Pew Research Center study reveals that although the number of Christians has increased, their proportion relative to the global population has decreased over the past ten years, primarily due to a trend of disaffiliation.
The Pew report analyzed over 2,700 censuses and surveys, revealing that the global Christian population expanded by 121.6 million from 2010 to 2020, reaching approximately 2.3 billion. However, as a percentage of the global population, which stood at about 7.8 billion in 2020, Christians experienced a decline of 1.8 percentage points, now comprising 28.8% of the world’s populace.
In contrast, the Muslim population saw a significant increase, growing by 347 million to reach 2 billion, thereby increasing their share to 25.6% and marking them as the fastest-growing religious group worldwide.
The report identifies religious disaffiliation as the major factor behind the decrease in Christianity’s share of the global population. Although a higher number of individuals are raised with religious ties, particularly in Christianity, there is a noticeable trend of these individuals moving towards being religiously unaffiliated.
Pew Research classifies the religiously unaffiliated as individuals who identify as atheist, agnostic, or having no particular religious belief.
“Religious disaffiliation is the main driver of the decline in the Christian share of the global population. Religious disaffiliation — primarily of people leaving Christianity — also is the main driver of the growth of religiously unaffiliated populations,” the study states.
Globally, the religiously unaffiliated group expanded by 270.1 million between 2010 and 2020, totaling 1.9 billion, which represents 24.2% of the world’s population.
Researchers investigated religious disaffiliation and switching patterns through surveys conducted in 117 countries.
“To capture switching that has occurred in more recent years, we use data from adults ages 18 to 54. Religious switching is more common earlier in life, though it can happen at any age,” the researchers noted.
“We found that for every adult in that age group who says they joined a religion after having been raised without a religion, 3.2 moved in the other direction — they left religion altogether after having been raised in one,” they explained.
This trend has resulted in the religiously unaffiliated category experiencing the largest net gain due to religious switching.
Conversely, Christianity has faced significant losses through this religious switching.
“Christians have experienced the biggest net losses from switching (3.1 have left for every 1.0 who has joined). Most former Christians no longer identify with any religion, but some now identify with a different religion,” the report elaborates.
As of 2020, China had the largest population of religiously unaffiliated individuals, with 90% of its population, or 1.3 billion people, identifying as such.
The United States ranked second, with about 101 million reporting no religious affiliation in 2020, marking a 97% increase from a decade prior.
Sub-Saharan Africa has now surpassed Europe as home to the largest number of Christians, with 30.7% of the world’s Christians residing there in 2020, compared to 22.3% in Europe.
Despite 120 countries maintaining a Christian-majority status, the report highlights that religious disaffiliation is gradually reshaping global religious demographics.
Christian populations have fallen below 50% in the United Kingdom (49%), Australia (47%), France (46%), and Uruguay (44%), with religiously unaffiliated individuals making up 40% or more in these regions.
Throughout the study period, nations such as the Netherlands (54%), Uruguay (52%), and New Zealand (51%) witnessed a majority shift towards religious non-affiliation, joining countries like China and Japan, which already had such majorities in 2010.
A 2022 Pew study suggested that if the trend of Christians abandoning their faith before 30 continues or accelerates, the U.S. might lose its Christian-majority status by 2045.
“Of course, it is possible that events outside the study’s model — such as war, economic depression, climate crisis, changing immigration patterns or religious innovations — could reverse current religious switching trends, leading to a revival of Christianity in the United States,” researchers noted. “But there are no current switching patterns in the U.S. that can be factored into the mathematical models to project such a result.”
This article was originally written by www.christiantoday.com
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