Sub-Saharan Africa has replaced Europe as the locus for the world’s Christians, due to both higher birthrates and Western Europe’s “widespread Christian disaffiliation” — with Christians declining as a share of the world’s population due to adherents leaving the faith, according to new research by the Pew Research Center.
Christians, tallied across denominations, remain the world’s largest religious group — a majority in all regions except the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa areas — but “they are shrinking as a share of the global population, as large numbers of Christians around the world ‘switch’ out of religion to become religiously unaffiliated,” said Pew.
On June 9, the center released “How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020,” surveying the religious makeup of 99.98% of the world’s population of just under 8 billion. The data — drawn from more than 2,700 sources, including national censuses, large-scale demographic and population surveys as well as population registers — represents 201 countries and territories with populations of at least 100,000.
The data relies on self-identification with a religion, and does not indicate any level of belief or practice, or lack thereof.
While the total number of Christians in the world increased from 2.1 billion to 2.3 billion during the decade from 2010-2020, the total population of non-Christians concurrently grew by 15% to 5.6 billion.
“As a result, Christians shrank as a percentage of the global population, with their share falling from 31% to 29%,” Pew said.
Religiously unaffiliated persons made for the third largest category among the global population, behind Christians and Muslims, said Pew.
As of 2020, Christians remained a majority in 120 countries and territories, down from 124 in 2010. Among the nations where Christians represent less than half the population are the United Kingdom (49%), Australia (47%), France (46%) and Uruguay (44%) — all of which now have 40% or more residents identifying themselves as religiously unaffiliated.
Countries experiencing notable 2010-2020 downturns in their respective self-identified Christians were Australia (67.1% to 46.8%), Chile (86% to 68.3%), Uruguay (61% to 44.5%), the United States (78.3% to 64%), Canada (67.2% to 53.3%) and the United Kingdom (62.4% to 49.4%).
The U.S. counts more Christian residents than any other country, with more than 217 million — or 9.6% of the world’s Christians — identifying themselves as such.
Following the U.S. are Brazil (over 168 million), Mexico (over 113 million), the Philippines and Russia (more than 102 million), and Nigeria and the Congo (each with over 92 million).
