The map above shows which religion is the fastest growing in each country around the world based on data from Pew Research Center’s The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050.
The colours are as follows:
- Green = Islam
- Red = Christianity
- Purple = Unaffiliated
- Pink = Folk/Other
- Yellow = Buddhist
- Brown = Hindu
- Grey = No Change
It’s important to note that the map shows which religion will have the largest relative, not absolute, increase between 2010 and 2050.
So for example, Folk and other regions are expected to grow from 0.8% of the US total in 2010 to 2.0% (150% increase) in 2050, while Christianity is expected to fall from 78.3% to 66.4% (15% decrease) in the same time period.
However, the total size of the Christian population of the US will still increase from around 243 million today to 261 million (18 million more) in 2050, while folk and other religions will increase from 2.5 million to 7.9 million (5.4 million more) in the same time period.
In relative terms Islam is doing well, becoming the fastest growing religion in both China and India (the world’s two most populous countries) and Russia and Canada (the world’s two largest countries by area). However, despite anti-immigrant feelings in the UK or France it’s not the fastest growing religion in either country.
Christianity is growing fastest in a few interesting place such as the predominantly Muslim countries of Turkey and Indonesia.
Unaffiliated groups are growing fastest in some of the more Catholic countries around the world in South America, Mexico and Poland along with several countries in Africa.
Folk/Other religions are doing well in the United States, UK, France, Brazil and many other countries.
Buddhism seems to be growing fastest in the Scandinavian countries (plus Austria and the Netherlands), far from its base in Asia.
Hindus are growing quickly in an interesting mix of countries from Muslim Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to Catholic Italy, Ireland and Belgium.
Here’s how PEW defined each group:
Islam/Muslims:
There are two major branches of Islam – Sunni and Shia. As of 2010, it was estimated that the overwhelming majority (87-90%) of Muslims were Sunnis; about 10-13% were Shia Muslims. However, with little data on population differences among Muslim subgroups around the world, this report does not project the future size of Sunni and Shia populations.
Christianity:
This analysis looks at Christians as a single religious group and does not project changes
among Christian subgroups.
Note: the report includes Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox as Christians along with Mormons, Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Unaffiliated:
The religiously unaffiliated population includes atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion. However, many of the religiously unaffiliated do hold some religious or spiritual beliefs.
Folk/Other:
Folk religions are closely tied to a particular people, ethnicity or tribe. In some cases, elements of other world religions are blended with local beliefs and customs. These faiths often have no formal creeds or sacred texts. Examples of folk religions include African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions.
Other:
“Other religions” is a residual category composed of groups not classified elsewhere. This very diverse category includes followers of religions that often are not measured separately in censuses and surveys: the Baha’i faith, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca, Zoroastrianism and many other religions. Because of a lack of data on these faiths in many countries, the individual religions within this category are not projected separately. Rather, they are combined and treated as a whole. This means the growth trajectories of specific religions in this category could vary greatly.
Buddhist:
The three major branches of Buddhism in the modern world are Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism and Vajrayana (sometimes described as Tibetan) Buddhism. […] The Buddhist population figures in this study also include members of other groups that identify as Buddhist, such as Soka Gakkai and Hoa Hao.
Hinduism:
Major traditions within Hinduism include Vaishnavism, which is devoted to worship of the god Vishnu, and Shaivism, organized around worship of the god Shiva. Because of a lack of census or survey data on subgroups of Hindus in most countries, however, reliable estimates of the global size of various Hindu traditions are not available.
You can see data for each country in the full report here.
For the current state of the world’s religions check out: Incredibly Detailed Maps Of The World’s Religions
Want to learn more about world religions? Have a look at the following books:
- World Religions: The Great Faiths Explored & Explained
- The Illustrated World’s Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions
- Man’s Search for Meaning
Have any comments about this map? Leave them below:
splooge says
how hinduism is it fastest growing in saudi arabia an pakistan while islam is fast in india
Teeta Malangi says
Because Saudi Arabia imports lots of labor and workers from India–hence their numbers are increasing.
Dizzy Blu says
how ironic would it be if Saudi Arabia becomes Hindu
Jack Falcon says
a bit off note but 80% of dubai’s residents are foreign,large amounts coming from india,hindu/sikhs among them.
TMCP says
I’m fairly certain Christianity is the fastest growing religion in China
Teeta Malangi says
Islam and Christianity are pretty close in terms of growth in China (That is, if we look at credible statistics and not the lunacy of evangelist propaganda).
The thing is, Islam has a larger “base” in China–with indigenous ethnic groups like Hui and Uyghurs being predominantly Muslim. Hence its growth can easily be monitored by demographers by looking at fertility data of predominantly Muslim ethnicities of China. Christianity is disorganized in China and there’s no ethnic group that is identified as predominantly Christian. So its hard to get actual numbers.
Trolling-The -Truth says
A very good nuanced answer Teeta. Well said.
motorsportsnz says
The figures about religious christianity are maybe true, however real followers of jesus are not religious, so their numbers will be very few as the bible says.
America you say will grow in numbers of christianity.
Same as nz many say they are followers of Jesus but sre not.
Nz % of those who keep the commandments of Jesus and His teaching are indeed few
Terrence Koeman says
That sounds like good news to me! Best commit your life to actually living your life.
anurag says
pakistan is forcing hinduism out of its country and hindu popullation are declining. How hinduism is growing in pakistan? The datas are not reliable.
pshr says
Hinduism the fastest growing religion in Saudi Arabia??
ROFL!!!!
Walid Bosso says
it’s because of indians going to travel there that’s all.
NoDrink DaPunch says
Pink = Folk/Other–> I think your out of your freaking mind and whom ever came up with this drivel needs to go suck a camel back, dude, you are thoroughly polluted, diluted, and now soluted
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Akash Kumar says
In The great India Hinduism will rule until the world is alive ….Islam can’t dominant over Hindu.. …Got it
Nagesh Aketi says
Hinduism is the oldest and first religion on the earth. The one who reads Gita, Ramayana & Mahabharat will never even think to leave religion. After 800 years of brutal invasion, Hinduism still strong and profound.
Hamdan Tariq says
False, the idea of monotheism has been present and has been traced to the first civilizations. Although never belonging to a name, it slowly progressed into names of the followers’ langauges (ie Jews, Chrsitians, Muslims). Hinduism was created long ago by an unknown person, however it does not have the title for first religion ideology wise…only oldest named.
James of the Clan MacLaren. says
I’m assuming that folk/other is paganism/neo-paganism, mostly from the Norse tradition. Good.
Nagesh Aketi says
Islam isn’t fastest growing religion, it’s fastest breeding religion.
Isma'il Ardo says
We know the truth except if we failed to speak it out. I want to assure you that Islam is the fastest and fastest growing religion in the world. If you need a fact you can contact me.
Jeevan says
Full fake news and data
Aloymz says
Do some more research.. Don’t try to misguide people
Cris says
What about the Jewish religion? Surely that’s all over the world from so many diasporas.