• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

The Top 15 Religions By Growth (1950-2019)

Heyo

Veteran Member
Although many religions are increasing their number, and therefore claim to be growing. when compared to population increase they are all declining overall.
Do you have a source for that? I suspect that only to be true for the western world. With the still massive population increase there is plenty of room for one religion to outpace the gains of the non religious.
 

SoyLeche

meh...
fastest_growing.png
 

Jeremiah Ames

Well-Known Member


All population numbers below are in millions.


In 1950 the world population was 2521

Catholic 401

Hindu 209

Protestant 134

Islam (combined) 77


In 2019 the world was 7750

Catholic 1119

Hindu 1155

Protestant 664

Islam (combined) 1725


Increases of each of the above:


World: 3.08

Catholic: 2.79

Protestant: 4.96

Hindu: 5.53

Islam: 22.40

I only analyzed the 4 big ones.
People still love their religions

note the growth of Islam.

Thats an eye opener.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
The chart movie is nice graphically. But it does not answer basic questions. It does not include, for example, those who say that they're a whatever, but basically don't believe compared to those who really practice a religion.

The chart does not compare growth in a religion to population growth. We don't know how much of the change is due to population growth where children follow the religion of their parents versus conversion.
 

GoodbyeDave

Well-Known Member
It's a bit silly to list Christianity as four different religions and the figures for religious worshipers in China are a huge underestimate according to the survey conducted by the University of Shanghai.

The points made by the last poster are also important. In Africa, the growth of Islam is entirely a matter of population growth. In Saudi Arabia (!) a recent internet survey suggested that over 20% just went through the motions of being Muslims for social (and legal!) reasons.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
.

Although as a percentage of world population the Muslims population is growing slightly, now at 24.9%.


MDII-graphics-webready-01.png

The rate of that growth is dropping, as is that of non-Muslims



[
MDII-graphics-webready-03.png

source

.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Do you have a source for that? I suspect that only to be true for the western world. With the still massive population increase there is plenty of room for one religion to outpace the gains of the non religious.

I googled world population increase followed by the increase in religion. Most major religions put their growth rate on the net.

The minor ones are not an issue
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
I googled world population increase followed by the increase in religion. Most major religions put their growth rate on the net.

The minor ones are not an issue
I searched for "atheists percentage world population" (using Duck-Duck-Go) and found:

"For years, the percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religion has been rising, a trend similar to what has been happening in much of Europe (including the United Kingdom). Despite this, in coming decades, the global share of religiously unaffiliated people is actually expected to fall, according to Pew Research Center’s new study on the future of world religions." at Religious 'nones' projected to decline as share of world population
 

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
I searched for "atheists percentage world population" (using Duck-Duck-Go) and found:

"For years, the percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religion has been rising, a trend similar to what has been happening in much of Europe (including the United Kingdom). Despite this, in coming decades, the global share of religiously unaffiliated people is actually expected to fall, according to Pew Research Center’s new study on the future of world religions." at Religious 'nones' projected to decline as share of world population

Correct me if I'm wrong, that's largely projected as a function of reproduction, right? Us heathens don't have as many babies.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Correct me if I'm wrong, that's largely projected as a function of reproduction, right? Us heathens don't have as many babies.
You're not wrong. But the correlation isn't that easy. More developed/wealthy nations tend to have fewer babies and more atheists. Atheism is still growing in the developed world but the world population is growing faster.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
I searched for "atheists percentage world population" (using Duck-Duck-Go) and found:

"For years, the percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religion has been rising, a trend similar to what has been happening in much of Europe (including the United Kingdom). Despite this, in coming decades, the global share of religiously unaffiliated people is actually expected to fall, according to Pew Research Center’s new study on the future of world religions." at Religious 'nones' projected to decline as share of world population


America accounts for just 5% of world population
Europe 10%. If you take the entire population of europe it is approximately equal to the number of non affiliated in china. So not sure of the links relevance

From what i can see there is no estimate of worldwide religious uptake compared to world population increase which is why i had to do the maths myself.

But i did find this
The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050
Consider world population is estimated to be around 10 billion in 2050 and apply that to the estimates of religious numbers and you will see what i am talking about
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
America accounts for just 5% of world population
Europe 10%. If you take the entire population of europe it is approximately equal to the number of non affiliated in china. So not sure of the links relevance

From what i can see there is no estimate of worldwide religious uptake compared to world population increase which is why i had to do the maths myself.

But i did find this
The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050
Consider world population is estimated to be around 10 billion in 2050 and apply that to the estimates of religious numbers and you will see what i am talking about

Your initial statement was:
Although many religions are increasing their number, and therefore claim to be growing. when compared to population increase they are all declining overall.
That can only be if the non-religious are gaining overall. I don't know where the discrepancy is. It may be in the dates (the Pew study was from 2017), it may be that Pew or you had some inaccurate data or simply that you made a calculation error. I believe that Pew is right; the percentage of non-religious is currently declining. That trend will reverse once the developing countries reach a level of wealth comparable with ours. Whenever that may be.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Your initial statement was:

That can only be if the non-religious are gaining overall. I don't know where the discrepancy is. It may be in the dates (the Pew study was from 2017), it may be that Pew or you had some inaccurate data or simply that you made a calculation error. I believe that Pew is right; the percentage of non-religious is currently declining. That trend will reverse once the developing countries reach a level of wealth comparable with ours. Whenever that may be.

I can only do the maths, i cannot speak for pew... Who seemed to be only discussing American atheists.
 
Top