The new report of PEW Research Center on the changing nature of religious population around the world has presented shocking figures. According to the report, Islam has now become the fastest growing religion in the world. Between 2010 and 2020, the Muslim population has increased by 347 million (34.7 crores). At the same time, the growth rate of the Hindu population has been equal to the global average, but the percentage of Hindus in India has decreased from 80% to 79%.
According to the PEW Research Center report “How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020”, there has been a significant change in the global religious population in the last decade. The Muslim population was 23.9% in 2010, which has increased to 25.6% in 2020. In contrast, the Christian population has declined—from 30.6% in 2010 to 28.8% in 2020. The Hindu population has remained roughly stable globally, but in India its percentage has declined from 80% to 79%. At the same time, the number of people with no religious identity (“nones”) has increased by 270 million, so that they now make up 24.2% of the global population.
The PEW report states that the main reason for the rapid growth of Islam is not conversion, but natural population growth. The average age in Muslim communities is 24 years, which is 9 years less than non-Muslims. In addition, there are an average of 2.9 children per Muslim woman, while this figure is 2.2 among non-Muslim women. The global share of Islam is constantly increasing due to young population and high birth rate.
Talking about regional distribution, the Asia-Pacific region has the highest Muslim population, which is about 1.2 billion. The percentage of Muslim population in the Middle East and North Africa has reached 94%. India is third in this list, where the Muslim population is about 213 million. These figures show that Islam has become the fastest growing religion globally.