Islam to be the largest religion by the end of the century

The US-based Pew Research Center has predicted that the number of Muslims is expected to exceed the number of Christians by the end of this century.

Based on research about Muslims it has compiled in recent years, Pew Research Center estimated that there were 1.6 billion Muslims in the world in 2010 – roughly 23% of the global population. But while Islam is currently the world’s second-largest religion (after Christianity), it is the fastest-growing major religion. And if current demographic trends continue the number of Muslims is expected to exceed the number of Christians by the end of this century.

Pew Research Center also stated that while many countries in the Middle East-North Africa region are heavily Muslim, the region is home to only about 20% of the world’s Muslims. A majority of Muslims globally (62%) live in the Asia-Pacific region, including large populations in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey.

Indonesia is currently the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, but Pew Research Center projects that India will have that distinction by the year 2050 (while remaining a majority-Hindu country), with more than 300 million Muslims.

The Muslim population in Europe also is growing, according to Pew, which projects 10% of all Europeans will be Muslims by 2050.

Michael Lipka, a senior editor focusing on religion at Pew Research Center, said: “There are two major factors behind the rapid projected growth of Islam, and both involve simple demographics. For one, Muslims have more children than members of other religious groups. Around the world, each Muslim woman has an average of 3.1 children, compared with 2.3 for all other groups combined.

“Muslims are also the youngest (median age of 23 years old in 2010) of all major religious groups, seven years younger than the median age of non-Muslims. As a result, a larger share of Muslims already are, or will soon be, at the point in their lives when they begin having children. This, combined with high fertility rates, will fuel Muslim population growth.”

He added: “While it does not change the global population, migration is helping to increase the Muslim population in some regions, including North America and Europe.”