This is world’s fastest-growing religion, over 34 crore people adopted in 10 years, not Christianity, Hinduism

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A new research paper has revealed the rate at which various religions are growing around the world. As per the report by Pew Research Center, Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion, with the population of Muslims growing by 347 million (34.7 crore) in a span of 10 years, from 2010 to 2020. Christianity has been found as the second fastest-growing religion, according to the study, while “nones” or people with no religious affiliation are the third fastest-growing group. Hinduism, meanwhile, is placed fourth in the list of fastest-growing faiths.

Study findings

The findings were revealed in the Pew Center’s report titled Global Religious Landscape, which was published on June 9. The paper mainly focuses on seven population categories: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, people who belong to religions other than these, and those who do not associate with any religion.

The report states that the rise in the number of Muslims is more than that in all other religions combined, and the proportion of the global Muslim population has risen by 1.8 percentage points to reach 25.6 percent.

Meanwhile, followers of Christianity — the world’s largest religious group — increased by 122 million (12.2 crore), reaching 2.3 billion (230 crore). In terms of share of the global population, the group saw a fall of 1.8 percentage points to reach 28.8 percent. The drop has been attributed to the rise of non-Christian population and those who left the faith. The survey further found that most former Christians no longer associate themselves with any religious group, but some now identify with another religion. The decline in Christian population has been recorded in regions around the world, including Europe, North America, the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand, the Pew report said.

Data on Hindus, atheists

Meanwhile, the number of people with no religious affiliations grew significantly, by 270 million (27 crore) to reach 1.9 billion (190 crore). Their population climbed nearly a full percentage point to 24.2 percent.

The number of Hindus, the world’s fourth-fastest growing group, increased at about the same rate as the world’s overall population. Their population increased by 126 million (12.6 crore), reaching a total of 1.2 billion (120 crore). Hindus now make up 14.9 percent of the global population, seeing a drop of 0.1% from 2010.