Some seven years later, Muhammad and his many followers returned to Mecca and conquered the region. [17][18] According to Pulitzer Center 35,000 people become Pentecostal or "Born again" every day. One-fifth of the U.S. public and a third of adults under 30 are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling. Only 4.7% of the Parsi community are under 6 years of age, which translates to 7 births per year per 1,000 individuals. Middle East: Are people losing their religion? - DW - 02/04/2021 [206] Converting to Christianity is growing among Muslims in the Albanian diaspora,[207][208] Iranian diaspora,[209] and Syrian diaspora,[210] and among Muslim Maghrebis in France,[211] and Kurds and Turks in Germany. [362][363], According to Rodney Stark, Islam was spread after military conquests after Arab armies began overtaking Christian regions from Syria to North Africa and Spain,[364] as well as Zoroastrian, Buddhist and Hindu regions in Central Asia, parts of South Asia and Southeast Asia via military invasions,[365][366][367] traders and Sufi missionaries. Officially, Arab states have major Muslim populations, varying from around 60% in Lebanon to almost 100% in Jordan or Saudi Arabia. Naresh Mitra / TNN / Jan 11, 2016, 03:10 IST. The birth rate is expected to be the main factor in the growth of Christianity. [101] The main growth areas have been Asia and Africa, 39% and 32%, respectively, since 2000. To get an isolated comparison of suicide across the world we can use suicide rates - these measure the number of suicides per 100,000 . [280] The Lebanese Druze have the lowest fertility among all age groups after the Lebanese Christians. [239], According to study published by the missionary statistician[240] and professor David B. Barrett of Columbia University,[241][242] and professor of global Christianity, historian George Thomas Kurian,[243] and both are work on World Christian Encyclopedia, approximately 2.7million converting to Christianity annually from another religion, World Christian Encyclopedia also cited that Christianity ranks at first place in net gains through religious conversion. [335] According to Harvard University professor Robert D. Putnam, there is increasing numbers of Americans who are leaving their faith and becoming unaffiliated and the average Iranian American is slightly less religious than the average American. [494] Zoroastrianism declined as forced conversion increased with the rise of Islam. In 200 years (from 1800-2000), the world population increased more than 6 times, but the Christian Population increased faster over the same period (over 9 times). Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline [98] According to Pew Research Center the number of Catholics in Africa has increased from one million in 1901 to 329,882,000 in 2010. [309] Studies estimated about 30,000 converting to Islam annually in the United States. Low fertility rates and aging populations in countries such as China, Thailand and Japan are the main demographic reasons for the expected shrinkage in the Buddhist population in the years ahead". The majority of post-9/11 converts are women, according to experts. Islamophobia: Understanding Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the West - Gallup.com [455] According to INEGI, in Mexico, the number of atheists grows annually by 5.2%, while the number of Catholics grows by 1.7%. Kalmykia is the only Buddhist majority region in Europe. Suicide - Our World in Data Since the 1980s, with the gradual opening of society, folk religion has begun to recover. [63][64][65][66] Since 1900, due primarily to conversion, Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America. [456][457] In New Zealand, 39% of the population are irreligious, making it the country with the largest irreligious population percentage in the Oceania region. Some of the tribes decided that as their loyalty to Islam had been primarily to Muhammad himself, his death . [360] In North America, it will grow 1% to 2%. Conversion To Islam One Result Of Post-9/11 Curiosity About a quarter say they preferred the beliefs or teachings of Islam to those of their prior religion, while 21% say they read religious texts or studied Islam before making the decision to switch. [93] Professor Aris Ananta reported in 2008 that "anecdotal evidence suggests that more Buddhist Chinese have become Christians as they increased their standards of education, because Christianity, unlike Buddhism, is often associated with 'modernity' and Western education", although there are no stats to support this. [230][231][232][233][234][235][236] The 2014 Religious Landscape Study finds a large majority (87.6%) of those who were raised as Christians in the United States still identify as such, while the rest who no longer identify as Christians mostly identify as religiously unaffiliated, and the number of those leaving Christianity in the United States is greater than the number of converts; however, the number of those convert to evangelical Christianity in the United States is greater than the number of those leaving that faith. [522], According to the Pew Research Center published in 2010, religious conversion may have little impact on religious demographics between 2010 and 2050. However, this does not gives us a direct comparison of suicide between countries - this share will also be influenced by the magnitude of other causes of death. [61] According to scholar Keith Smith of Georgia State University "many scholars claim that Pentecostalism is the fastest growing religious phenomenon in human history",[15] and according to scholar Peter L. Berger of Boston University "the spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion". [385] However, the poll tax known as Jizyah may have played a part in converting people over to Islam but as Britannica notes "The rate of taxation and methods of collection varied greatly from province to province and were greatly influenced by local pre-Islamic customs" and there were even cases when Muslims had the tax levied against them, on top of Zakat. [19], These forecasts lack reliable data on religious conversion in China, but according to media reports and expert assessments, it is possible that the rapid growth of Christianity in China may maintain, or even increase, the current numerical advantage of Christianity as the largest religion in the world and may negatively affect the growth of the Religiously Unaffiliated. [358], There exist different views among scholars about the spread of Islam. The same 2017 survey asked converts from Islam to explain, in their own words, their reasons for leaving the faith. "They were reporting on the mass conversions of Muslimsas many as 6-8 millionin sub-Saharan, Africa, and they have repeated the warning every year," he said. The survey was conducted in June 2020 for 15 days from June 17th to July 1st in 2020 and reflects the views of the educated people of Iran over the age of 19 (equivalent to 85% of Adults in Iran) and can be generalized to apply to this entire demographic. The story we normally hear is of an Islam growing from strength to strength, and how for all the phobia that exists around it, it remains the fastest growing religion with 1.6 billion followers across the world and acquiring new converts on an almost daily basis. Wealthy Neighborhoods Saw the Most People Leave Every borough experienced a spike in people moving out last year, but Manhattan saw the . By actually counting the number of people who showed up at representative sample of churches, two researchers, Kirk Hadaway and Penny Marler found that only 20.4 percent of the population, or half the Gallup figure, attended church each weekend. Those who have left Islam are more likely to be immigrants from Iran (22%) than those who have not switched faiths (8%). Indeed, while aboutone-in-fiveAmerican Muslim adults were raised in a different faith tradition and converted to Islam, a similar share of Americans who were raised Muslim nowno longer identify with the faith. Conversions involving Islam sometimes look like a one-way street in the West. [38], It was reported in 2013 that around 5,000 British people convert to Islam every year, with most of them being women. [500][492], India has the world's largest Zoroastrian population who are called Parsis. [342] Pew study also reveals that Muslims are younger than other Europeans. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. Studies in the 21st century suggest that, in terms of percentage and worldwide spread,[1][2] Islam is the fastest-growing major religion in the world. It is expected to increase up to 62million by 2100, given that the anticipated growth rate of 1.7% per year and adding at least 400,000 followers annually. [382] The report also shows that the fall in the birth rate of Muslims slowed down the growth rate from 1990 to 2010. [35] The decline is due to several factors such as the low fertility level among Buddhists (1.6 children per woman),[36] and the old age (median age of 34), compared to the overall population. Likewise, certain states, such asNew Jersey, are home to two or three times as many Muslim adults per capita as the national average. [252] According to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, Christianity in India gained an increase from conversion, most of the Christian converts in India are former Hindus. Muslims Leaving Islam - The American Conservative [82] According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, around 9% of Latin Americans were raised as Protestant, but nearly 19% now identify themselves as Protestants. [327] While both religions will grow but Muslim population will exceed the Christian population and by 2100, Muslim population (35%) will be 1% more than the Christian population (34%). [359] By 2050 Asia will be home to (52.8%) of the world's Muslims, and about (24.3%) of the world's Muslims will live in Sub Saharan Africa, (20%) the Middle East and North Africa, and 2% in Europe. [303][304] According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the World Christian Database as of 2007 has Islam as the fastest-growing religion in the world. Although such attitudes have a long history in Europe, the idea that Muslims are 'the enemy' has become more widespread over the last 30 years. At the end of 2017, the average age of the Israeli Druze was 27.9. For the period 2000-2013, the figures in point 1. above equate to an average annual growth rate of 1.18% v 1.32%. Quite clearly, Christianity exceeds the other four major religious/non-religious bodies by a significant proportion of 0.6 billion - overtaking Islam in number of followers by an astounding 9.1% of the global population. Reaching Iranians online Iran's census claims that 99.5% of the population are Muslim, a figure that hides the state's active hostility toward irreligiosity, conversion and unrecognised religious. [67] That caused Protestantism to be called a primarily non-Western religion. Though exact numbers are difficult to tally, observers estimate that as many as 20,000 Americans convert to Islam annually. Islam began in Arabia and from 633 AD until the late 10th century it was spread through conquests, far-reaching trade and missionary activity. [274][275] The Druze faith do not accept converts to their faith, nor practice proselytism. Although some national censuses ask people about their religion, they do not ask if they have converted to their presently espoused faith. Werner Ustorf. [458], According to a religious forecast for 2050 by Pew Research Center, the percentage of the world's population that is unaffiliated or nonreligious is expected to drop, from 16% of the world's total population in 2010 to 13% in 2050. [399] Additionally, there is also a growing rate of conversion to Jews by Choice of gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews. Statistics commonly measure the absolute number of adherents, the percentage of the absolute growth per-year, and the growth of converts in the world. Grim.[521]. 2002. "[411], The largest proportions of the total world Bah' population[412] were found in sub-Saharan Africa (29.9%) and South Asia (26.8%), followed by Southeast Asia (12.7%) and Latin America (12.2%). According to Pew Research Center, in the United States, the percentage of people converting to Islam is almost the same as the people leaving Islam ( about 23%). Projections of future religious adherence are based on assumptions that trends, total fertility rates, life expectancy, political climate, conversion rates, secularization, etc. Islam gains about as many converts as it loses in U.S. | Pew Research Some American Muslims Leave Islam, But Protestant Converts Often [287], Hinduism is a growing religion in countries such as Ghana,[288] Russia,[289] and the United States. 1,400 Years of Christian/Islamic Struggle: An Analysis - CBN.com - The [400], Rates of interreligious marriage vary widely: In the United States, it is just under 50percent,[401] in the United Kingdom, around 53percent; in France; around 30percent,[402] and in Australia and Mexico, as low as 10percent. (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax In the aftermath of the Cold War, one could say that Europe needed a new archetypal enemy, and research shows that Muslim immigrants gradually took on that status. [439] However, since around 2001 the Universal House of Justice has prioritized statistics of the community by their levels of activity rather than simply their population of avowed adherents or numbers of local assemblies. From the late 1920s to the late 1980s the religion was harassed and banned in the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc,[427][428][429] and then again from the 1970s into the 1990s across some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Fewer identify as Christian (22%), and an additional one-in-five (21%) identify with a wide variety of smaller groups, including faiths such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, or as generally spiritual.. [488][489] Mary Jones says Wicca is one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States as well. [330], While the total Fertility Rate of Muslims in North America is 2.7 children per woman in the 2010 to 2015 period, well above the regional average (2.0) and the replacement level (2.1). Iran's secular shift: new survey reveals huge - The Conversation Born in the . Islam is now the second most popular religion on the planet with more . [440][441][442], Because Bah's do not represent the majority of the population in any country,[443] and most often represent only a tiny fraction of countries' total populations,[444] there are problems of under-reporting. [201] According to Guinness, approximately 12.5 million more people who converted to Islam than people who converted to Christianity between 1990 and 2000. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. "A missiological postscript", in McLeod and Ustorf (eds). According to the Pew Research Center, the Muslim population in Europe (excluding Turkey) was about 30 million in 1990, and 44 million in 2010; the Muslim share of the population increased from 4.1% in 1990 to 6% in 2010. [64][66] Much of the growth has occurred after World War II, when decolonization of Africa and abolition of various restrictions against Protestants in Latin American countries occurred. [30], Buddhism is the majority and state religion in six countries: Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Bhutan and Laos. "God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades". Over that same time period, the number of people who do not identify with any particular religion increased from 16 percent to 29 percent. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World, Size & Demographic Characteristics of Religious Groups, Muslims are a growing presence in U.S., but still face negative views from the public, Republicans account for a small but steady share of U.S. Muslims, The share of Americans who leave Islam is offset by those who become Muslim, New estimates show U.S. Muslim population continues to grow, 60% of Americans Would Be Uncomfortable With Provider Relying on AI in Their Own Health Care, Gender pay gap in U.S. hasnt changed much in two decades. [124][a] Countries with the largest numbers of Muslims converted to Christianity according to this study include Indonesia (6,500,000),[125] Nigeria (600,000),[125] Iran (500,000 versus only 500 in 1979),[125] the United States (450,000),[126] Ethiopia (400,000) and Algeria (380,000).