Dubai: Islam will emerge as the most popular religion in the world by the end of the century, according to the latest analysis.
Pew Research Centre, headquartered in the United States, said on Monday that the number of followers of Islam is poised to outnumber those following Christianity after 2070, while certain regions around the world, including Europe, will see a surge in the number of Muslim citizens.
“Indeed, if current demographic trends continue, the number of Muslims are expected to exceed the number of Christians by the end of this century,” according to the analysis released on Monday.
Pew’s research showed that Islam is growing faster in size than any other religion in the world, while the growth of the Christian population is stagnating.
The rapid expansion of Muslims has been attributed to a relatively youthful population and high fertility rates.
Each Muslim woman has an average of 3.1 children, compared with 2.3 for all other religious groups combined.
Muslims are also the youngest (median age of 23 years old in 2010) of all major religious groups, seven years young than the median age of non-Muslims.
“As a result, a larger share of Muslims already are, or will soon be, at the point in their lives when they begin having children. This, combined with high fertility rates, will fuel population growth,” the report said.
Between 2010 and 2050, Pew had projected that the Muslim population will expand by 73 per cent, from 1.6 billion to 2.8 billion. The number of Christians, on the other hand, is forecast to rise more slowly, from 2.1 billion in 2010 to 2.9 billion in 2050, up by 35 per cent.
A near parity between the two religions is therefore evident in 2050 and more than two decades later, the numbers will be in favour of Islam.
“If the main projection model is extended beyond 2050, the Muslim share of the world’s population would equal the Christian share, at roughly 32 per cent each, around 2070. After that, the number of Muslims would exceed the number of Christians, but both religious groups would grow, roughly in tandem,” Pew’s report stated.
By the year 2100, about 1 per cent more of the world’s population would be Muslim (35 per cent) than Christian (34 per cent).
As of 2015, Pew estimates also showed that the number of atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion will see a decline over the next several decades.
The global Buddhist population will be about the same size as it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish people will be larger than they are today.
As Muslim migration to Europe will continue to rise, Muslims will make up 10 per cent of the overall population by 2050.
The size of the Christian population in the United States will dwindle from more than three-quarters of the population to two-thirds in 2050. There will also be more Muslims in the US than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.
