Fastest Growing Religion

The Numbers    

Overview

The largest overall religions:

1900	1) Christianity	2) Chinese folk-religions	3) Hinduism
1970	1) Christianity	2) Islam	3) Hinduism
1990	1) Christianity	2) Islam	3) Hinduism
1995	1) Christianity	2) Islam	3) Hinduism
2000	1) Christianity	2) Islam	3) Hinduism
2025	1) Christianity	2) Islam	3) Hinduism
2050	1) Christianity	2) Islam	3) Hinduism

The five fastest growing religions in terms of absolute numbers (new adherents per year, in millions):

1.	Christianity	25,210,195
2.	Islam	22,588,676
3.	Hinduism	12,533,734
4.	Chinese folk-religions	3,715,548
5.	Buddhism	3,687,527

The five fastest growing religions in terms of relative growth compared to existing size of religion:

1.	Zoroastrianism	2.65%
2.	Bahá’í	2.28%
3.	Islam	2.13%
4.	Mandeans	2.12%
5.	Sikhism	1.87%

The five fastest growing religions by conversions (new adherents per year, in millions):

1.	Christianity	2,501,396
2.	Islam	865,558
3.	Buddhism	156,609
4.	Sikhism	28,961
5.	Baha’is	26,333

The five fastest growing religions by births (new adherents per year, in millions):

1.	Christianity	22,708,799
2.	Islam	21,723,118
3.	Hinduism	13,194,111
4.	Ethnoreligionists	4,098,003
5.	Animists	3,985,506

Overall size, absolute numbers

World Christian Encyclopaedia

The World Christian Encyclopaedia (see background), lists the size of the 12 classic world religions.

 

Religion	Numbers	%	Countries
Christianity	1,999,563,838	33.0%	238
Islam	1,188,242,789	19.6%	204
Hinduism	811,336,265	13.4%	114
Buddhism	359,981,757	5.9%	126
Sikhism	23,258,412	0.4%	34
Judaism	14,434,039	0.2%	134
Bahá’í	7,106,420	0.1%	218
Confucianism	6,298,597	0.1%	15
Jainism	4,217,979	0.1%	10
Shinto	2,761,845	0.0%	8
Taoism	2,654,514	0.0%	5
Zoroastrianism	2,543,950	0.0%	24
Other	1,632,648,595	26.9%	–
Total	6,055,049,000	100%	238

Table A ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

• At slightly less than 2 billion, Christianity makes up about a third of the world population and approximately the same as the two next largest religions combined; Islam and Hinduism. Christianity is also the only religion represented in all 238 surveyed countries.

• The largest religion (Christianity) is aprox. 68% larger than the second largest religion (Islam) and 246% larger than the third largest religion (Hinduism).

• The nine smallest religions combined have fewer adherents than the third largest (Hinduism).

• And the eight smallest religions combined have fewer adherents than the fourth largest (Buddhism).

• The combined adherents of the three primary Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, makes up approximately 52.8% (3,202,240,666 persons) of the total population – more than half. Some times also Sikhism and the Bahá’í faith are counted as Abrahamic religions, in which case that number will be slightly higher.

• Non-religious people and people belonging to religions not part of the 12 world religions makes up slightly less than 27%. A smaller number than the largest religion, Christianity, but larger than the second largest religion, Islam.

Affiliation detail (Christianity):

Affiliation	Numbers	%	Countries
Roman Catholics	1,057,328,093	17.5%	235
Independents	385,745,407	6.4%	221
Protestants	342,001,605	5.6%	233
Orthodox	215,128,717	3.6%	135
Anglicans	79,649,642	1.3%	166
Marginal Christians	26,060,230	0.4%	215

Table B ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 1 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 2 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Britannica Encyclopedia

The Britannica Encyclopedia has some slightly different estimates. And for the year 2005.

 

Religion	%
Christianity	33.06%
Islam	20.28%
Hinduism	13.33%
Buddhism	5.87%
Sikhism	0.39%
Judaism	0.23%
Bahá’í	0.12%
Confucianism	0.10%
Jainism	0.07%
Shinto	0.04%
Taoism	0.04%
Zoroastrianism	0.04%
Other	26.43%
Total	100%

Table G ––– source: Britannica Encyclopedia

The CIA World Fact Book

The CIA World Factbook is an annual publication of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States with almanac-style information – including demographics & faith statistics – about the 266 U.S. recognized countries of the world and a number of smaller areas. The Factbook only tabulate seven world religions. The numbers only differ slightly from the WCE and The Britannica Encyclopedia.

 

Religion	size	%
Christianity	2,234,770,118	33.32%
Islam	1,409,139,261	21.01%
Hinduism	889,347,292	13.26%
Buddhism	391,688,400	5.84%
Sikhism	23,474,476	0.35%
Judaism	15,426,084	0.23%
Bahá’í	8,048,392	0.12%
Other (incl. non-religious & atheists)	1,735,099,128	25.87%
Total	6,706,993,152	100%

Table H ––– source: The CIA World Fact Book, 2008 ed.

Adherents.com

Adherents.com is a website that aims to collect and present information about religion, including statistics on size. Adherents.com collects the information from a large number of census reports, surveys &etc.

 

Religion	size	%
Christianity	2,100,000,000	33%
Islam	1,500,000,000	21%
Hinduism	900,000,000	14%
Buddhism	376,000,000	6%
Sikhism	23,000,000	0.36%
Judaism	14,000,000	0.22%

Table I ––– source: adherents.com

Growth

The World Christian Encyclopaedia has estimated the growth of the 12 classic world religions in the decade 1990-2000 (anual change in new adherents and percentage):

Religion	Total	Natural (births)	Conversions	Growth
Christianity	25,210,195	22,708,799	2,501,396	1.36%
Islam	22,588,676	21,723,118	865,558	2.13%
Hinduism	12,533,734	13,194,111	-660,377	1.69%
Buddhism	3,687,527	3,530,918	156,609	1.09%
Sikhism	392,638	363,677	28,961	1.87%
Judaism	124,515	194,962	-70,447	0.91%
Bahá’í	143,491	117,158	26,333	2.28%
Confucianism	44,305	55,739	-11,434	0.73%
Jainism	34,951	74,539	-39,588	0.87%
Shinto	-31,993	8,534	-40,527	-1.09%
Taoism	25,242	25,397	-155	1.00%
Zoroastrianism	58,471	45,391	13,080	2.65%
Global population	78,860,791	78,860,791	–	1.41%

Table J ––– source: Britannica Encyclopedia

• Christianity is the fastest growing religion both in the number of new adherents due to natural growth (births minus deaths) as well as in number of new converts (converts in minus converts out).

• The total growth of Christianity (25,210,195) adds the equivalent of more than the population of Australia (21,555,500) or the U.S. State of Texas (23,904,380) of new Christians to Christianity. Every year.

• The number of new converts to Christianity is more than twice the combined number of new converts to all the other tabulated religions, even if we take out those with negative numbers (2,501,396 vers. 1,090,541).

• The new converts to Christianity (2,501,396) adds the equivalent of more than the population of Latvia (2,268,000) or almost the U.S. State of Nevada (2,565,382) of new Christians to Christianity. Every year.

Figure 3 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 4 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 5 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 6 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 7 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 8 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 9 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 10 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Future estimations based on current size and growth numbers:

	2000 (estimated)		2025 (projected)		2050 (projected)		Delta (Δ) 2000-2050
Religion	Adherents	%	Adherents	%	Adherents	%	Adherents	Growth	Wrld
Christianity	1,999,563,838	33.0%	2,616,670,052	33.4%	3,051,564,342	34.3%	1,052,000,504	52.61%	1.3%
Islam	1,188,242,789	19.6%	1,784,875,653	22.8%	2,229,281,610	25.0%	1,041,038,821	87.61%	5.4%
Hinduism	811,336,265	13.4%	1,049,230,740	13.4%	1,175,297,850	13.2%	363,961,585	44.86%	-0.2%
Buddhism	359,981,757	5.9%	418,344,730	5.3%	424,607,060	4.8%	64,625,303	17.95%	-1.1%
Sikhism	23,258,412	0.4%	31,377,860	0.4%	37,058,960	0.4%	13,800,548	59.34%	0.0%
Judaism	14,434,039	0.2%	16,053,350	0.2%	16,694,500	0.2%	2,260,461	15.66%	0.0%
Bahá’í	7,106,420	0.1%	12,062,150	0.2%	18,000,900	0.2%	10,894,480	153.30%	0.1%
Confucianism	6,298,597	0.1	6,817,950	0.1	6,952,900	0.1	654,303	10.39%	0.0%
Jainism	4,217,979	0.1	6,115,650	0.1	6,732,770	0.1	2,514,791	59.62%	0.0%
Shinto	2,761,845	0.0%	2,122,950	0.0%	1,655,400	0.0%	-1,106,445	-40.06%	0.0%
Taoism	2,654,514	0.0%	3,066,300	0.0%	3,272,200	0.0%	617,686	23.27%	0.0%
Zoroastrianism	2,543,950	0.0%	4,439,930	0.1%	6,964,700	0.1%	4,420,750	173.78%	0.1%
Others	1,632,648,595	27.0%	1,872,525,685	24.0%	1,931,011,808	22.0%	298,363,213	18.27%	-5.6%
Total	6,055,049,000	100%	7,823,703,000	100%	8,909,095,000	1000%	2,854,046,000	47.13%	–

Table K ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

• The “Δ adherents” is the sum of new adherents from the year 2000 to the year 2050.

• The “Δ growth” is the size of the religion in 2050 compared to the year 2000.

• The “Δ wrld” is the growth from 2000 to 2050 in the size of the religion of the world population.

• In the period 2000-2050, in terms of absolute numbers, Christianity is predicted to be the fastest growing religion (1,052 billion more adherents). Closely followed by Islam (+1.041 billion) – though the difference between the two numbers is so small that any difference easily lies within the statistical uncertainty.

• Since Islam from the base point in 2000 is a smaller overall religion than Christianity (about 60% the size of Christianity) the same (roughly) growth in absolute number of adherents translate into a larger relative growth. Respectively 87.61% versus 52.61% in relation to the initial size of the religion & 5.4% versus 1.3% as a proportion of the religions size compared to the global human population.

• In terms of growth in percentage, Zoroastrianism (+173.78%) & Bahá’í (+153.30%) are the two fastest growing religions. But since their base size is comparatively small (respectively 0.12% & 0.36% the size of Christianity), this strong growth has only a small influence on the relative size of tabulated religions (both gain 0.1% “market share”).

Figure 11 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Figure 12 ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

Analyses, Growth pattern:

Conversion

Only religions with a positive number of converts (i.e. more converts into, than converts out from) are included.

Religion	Conversions	Rate to total growth	Rate to size	Number of adherents to each new convert
Christianity	2,501,396	9.92%	0.13%	799
Islam	865,558	3.83%	0.07%	1,373
Buddhism	156,609	4.25%	0.04%	2,298
Sikhism	28,961	7.38%	0.12%	803
Bahá’í	26,333	18.35%	0.37%	270
Zoroastrianism	13,080	22.37%	0.51%	194

Table L ––– source: World Christian Encyclopaedia

• Rate to total growth is the size of the total growth of the religion which comes from converts. A high number can signify many converts or a low natural growth, conversely a low rate can signify few converts or high natural growth.

• Rate to size is the relative size of the number of converts to the size of the whole religion.

• Number of adherents to each new convert is the number of adherents of a religion to the number of new converts. This and the previous column (“Rate to size”) illustrate the same information.

• Christianity is by far the fastest growing religion in regard to new converts. The number of new converts to Christianity is more than twice the combined number of new converts to all the other tabulated religions, even if we take out those with negative numbers (2,501,396 vers. 1,090,541).

• Zoroastrianism followed by Bahá’í are the two religions which springs the largest part of their total growth from new converts (22.37%, 18.35%).

• Zoroastrianism and Bahá’í have the highest number of converts in relation to the size of the religions (0.51%, 0.37%). Buddhism and Islam manage the least new converts in relation to this size (0.04%, 0.07%).

Natural growth

Religion	Natural growth total	Rate to total growth	Rate to size
Christianity	22,708,799	90.08%	1.14%
Islam	21,723,118	96.17%	1.83%
Hinduism	13,194,111	100%	1.63%
Buddhism	3,530,918	95.75%	0.98%
Sikhism	363,677	92.62%	1.56%
Judaism	194,962	100%	1.35%
Bahá’í	117,158	81.65%	1.65%
Confucianism	55,739	100%	0.88%
Jainism	74,539	100%	1.77%
Shinto	8,534	100%	0.31%
Taoism	25,397	100%	0.96%
Zoroastrianism	45,391	77.63%	1.78%

Table M ––– source: Christian Encyclopaedia

• Rate to total growth is the part of the total growth which comes from natural growth. I.e. subtracted the part coming from growth due to new converts.

• Rate to size is the natural growth compared to the size of the religion. Says something of the overall fertility of the people in the religion.

• Christianity is the fastest growing religion in terms of the growing number of new Christians due to a positive population growth (22,708,799 new Christians / year).

• Islam followed by Zoroastrianism are the religions with the highest natural growth in relation to their overall size. i.e. have the highest population growth rate (1.83%, 1.78%).

Demographic transition and declining fertility

Total fertility rate (TFR)^{(Term 14)} is measured as the average number of children women from a particular country will bear if she lives to the end of her childbearing years and bear children according to a given fertility rate at each age. TFR is the best predictor of future population growth. In Western and industrialised countries a TFR of approx. 2.1 – i.e. each women in generally giving birth to 2.1 children (or rather a random sample of 100 women giving birth to 210 children) – is considered the replacement level^{(Term 16)}. The birth level where the population over time is stable, neither growing nor shrinking, but exactly replacing itself. In less developed countries with higher mortality rate, the replacement level can be higher, someplaces as high as 3.5. A growing population can be achieved by raising the fertility rate (quantity) or lowering the replacement level (quality). Countries with a sub-replacement fertility – a TFR below the replacement level – can still grow their population over a relative short period due to a population momentum, caused by a previous above replacement fertility resulting in a high number of young people in the child bearing age. But over a sustained period a sub-replacement fertility will always result in a shrinking population.

Over the last 22 years (1989 – 2010) the average fertility rate of the whole word declined from 3.50 to 2.56. A fall of 0.94 children per. women or 27% less children per women over the 22 years. The weighted average fertility rate for Christian nations^{(Term 12)} declined from 3.26 to 2.56. A fall of 0.7 children per. women, or 21% less children per women over the 22 years. The weighted average fertility rate for the Muslim nations^{(Term 13)} declined from 5.17 to 3.00. A fall of 2.17 children per. women or 42% less children per women over the 22 years. The fertility gap of 0.24 children per women, which existed between the world average and the average for Christian countries disappeared. The fertility gap between the Muslim countries and the Christian average declined from 59% in 1989 to 17% in 2010, a narrowing of the gap of 71%. If the trends of the last 22 years continue – which they are likely to do, since population trends tend to be fairly predictable in the near future – the Muslim and world/Christian fertility will converge in around 2015. Revised down from 2022/3 from last projection, made with numbers available until 2008.

	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Avg. world fertility	3.50	3.40	3.30	3.30	3.20	3.10	3.10	2.90	2.90	2.90	2.80
Avg. Christian fertility	3.26	3.14	3.08	2.95	2.87	2.84	2.84	2.66	2.62	2.63	2.61
Avg. Muslim fertility	5.17	5.25	5.05	4.92	4.78	4.75	4.60	4.28	4.18	4.05	3.81

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Avg. world fertility	2.80	2.73	2.70	2.65	2.62	2.60	2.59	2.59	2.61	2.58	2.56
Avg. Christian fertility	2.62	2.55	2.54	2.51	2.49	2.46	2.50	2.52	2.60	2.58	2.56
Avg. Muslim fertility	3.69	3.62	3.56	3.56	3.52	3.47	3.44	3.37	3.30	3.23	3.00

Table N ––– source: CIA World Fact Book ed. 1998-2010

Figure 13 ––– source: CIA World Fact Book ed. 1998-2010

Figure 14 ––– source: CIA World Fact Book ed. 1998-2009

Symbol of the major religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)