The Future of World Religion in 2050

This is what you need to know about the future of world religions, according to projections by the Pew Research Center, whose results are driven primarily by current differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations around the world. The major takeaway, is that by 2050, the number of Muslims around the world will nearly equal the number of Christians, as Islam will grow faster than any other major world religion, thanks to comparatively youthful population with high fertility rates, which is projected to cause Islam’s followers to grow by 73%. The number of Christians also is projected to rise, but more slowly, at about the same rate (35%) as the global population overall. The countries on Earth with the fastest population growth rates are mostly countries with heavily Muslim populations. If these countries are able to develop faster than expected though, their birth rates will fall, and the growth of Islam will be slower than projected here. As you can see, the current fertility rates of Muslims are significantly higher than any other religion. Muslims also have the youngest population, with 34% of their followers under the age of 15 and only 7% older than 60. Religious switching will account for over 66 million Christians changing faiths, with 93% becoming unaffiliated. Here in the United States, while declining in overall share, Christians are projected to still be the dominant religious group, although the unaffiliated, which includes agnostics and atheists, will see large jump. Even though the number of religiously unaffiliated people will increase by nearly 10% over the next three and half decades, its share of the global population will actually slip by more than 3%. Today, only 60% of the world uses the Internet, but as that number climbs, the number of unaffiliated/agnostic/and atheists should likely rise with it, faster than projected in this study. These are the countries projected to no longer have Christian majority in 2050, either because the number of Christians will drop below 50% of the population, or because another group, like the unaffiliated or Muslims, will take Christianity’s place as the majority religion. Under these projections, worldwide, the proportion of Muslims will surpass Christians around the year 2070. And lastly, word of caution about this report from the Pew Center itself: “the projections are what will occur if the current data are accurate and current trends continue. But many events – scientific discoveries, armed conflicts, social movements, political upheavals, natural disasters and changing economic conditions, just to name few – can shift demographic trends in unforeseen ways.” Thanks for watching, if you found this video informative, hit that like button to share it with others around the world. And we’d like to give shout out to the many researchers who carefully gathered and put all this information together in their fantastic report, which is linked in full below. This episode of The Daily Conversation was edited by Brendan Plank. For TDC, until talk to you next time, I’m Bryce Plank.