population will catch up to Christianity, which is currently practiced by more than

a third of the world. At the same time, the number of religiously unaffiliated, which

includes atheists, agnostics, and people with nonspecific religious leanings, is set to

steadily decline. So what does the future of religion look like?

Some estimates place the number of religions worldwide in the thousands. There are over

40,000 Christian sects alone. But the five big ones are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism,

Buddhism, Judaism, plus the unaffiliated. Today, Christians and Muslims make up roughly

half of the world’s population, with 31 and 23 percent, respectively. But over the

next 35 years, as the world population grows by another third, Muslims are expected to

nearly double. At the same time, the rest of the world’s religions, including the

unaffiliated, are expected to stay relatively stable, and even drop slightly in proportion

to the big two.

So why is this happening? Well, first of all, on average, Muslims have a lot of babies.

At more than 3 per woman, this is roughly half a baby more than Christian women produce

on average. And that’s twice the fertility rate of Buddhists and the unaffiliated. In

India, a country with one of the fastest growing Muslim populations, this has been attributed

to younger marriages, and a resistance to contraception. At the same time, Islam is

already disproportionately represented by followers under 15, and the lowest proportion

of followers over 65. Again, by comparison, the unaffiliated are nearly twice as likely

to be old, and almost half as likely to be young. Another factor is religious conversion.

While Islam grows, Christianity is slated to lose as many as 100 million adherents over

the next 35 years.

There are a lot of factors at play when it comes to religion, but looking at the big

picture, it seems like Islam is well on it’s way to dominating the world stage. However,

Pew notes that predicting trends that far in advance is a risky move, as “war, famine,

disease, technological innovation, and political upheaval” or other unforeseen events can

drastically alter demographic trends.

Ever wondered why and how a religion is officially recognized by the US government? It’s actually

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