Muslim birth rate outnumber christian one by 2035
The results, published by the Pew Research Centre on Wednesday, find that followers of the Muslim faith are projected to be the world's fastest-growing major religious group in the decades ahead.
For years Christians were the largest religious group in the world, making up almost one third of the Earth's 7.3 billion people. Muslims were second with 1.8 billion faithful, according to the study.
While the world's Christian population has continued to grow in recent years, it has done so more modestly. Between 2010 and 2015, births to Muslims made up an estimated 31 per cent of all babies born around the world – far exceeding the 24 per cent Muslim share of people of all ages.
This turnaround is in part driven by the fact that Christian populations are ageing. In Europe, deaths are expected to outnumber births in the years to come. In Germany alone there were an estimated 1.4 million more Christian deaths than births between 2010 and 2015.
The world’s Muslim population, on the other hand, is younger and has high fertility rates, with a higher number of children born to adherents.
By 2060, 27pc of the global Muslim population is projected to be living in sub-Saharan Africa, up from 16pc in 2015. The share of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa is expected to hold steady at 20pc.
Both Muslims and Christians are expected to capture a larger share of the global population by 2060. In contrast to this boom, the number people who do not identify with any religion are projected to decline in coming decades.
Religiously unaffiliated people currently make up 16 per cent of the global population. Only an estimated 10 per cent of the world’s newborns between 2010 and 2015 were born to religiously unaffiliated mothers.