ISLAM is growing globally almost twice as fast as Christianity, although Muslims will still be outnumbered by Christians half a century from now, a new survey suggests.

The report, Status of Global Christianity 2026, says that the world’s Muslim population has surpassed two billion and will reach 3.4 billion by 2075 if it sustains a current 1.57 per cent growth rate, compared to Christianity’s 0.95 per cent.

Despite their faster growth rate, however, Muslims will still be outnumbered by Christians — with followers of the two faiths reaching 2.10 billion and 2.67 billion respectively.

At 1.15 billion, Hindus are the world’s third largest religious group, far ahead of Buddhists at 535 million, Sikhs at 31 million and Jews at 15.7 million. The report puts the world’s agnostics and atheists at just over 911 million and predicts that their number will fall substantially over the next half-century.

Among Christians, Roman Catholics currently make up the largest proportion at 1.27 billion and are expected to rise to 1.51 billion by 2075. The world’s Protestants are set to increase from 638 million to just over one billion, and Evangelicals, Pentecostals and Charismatics from 1.1 billion to 1.8 billion.

The research was carried out by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, in Massachusetts, and draws on multiple demographic and religious surveys by United Nations agencies and inter-denominational groups such as the World Evangelical Alliance.

It suggests that urbanisation and demographic shifts will preoccupy church leaders over coming decades, as well as continued persecution, although the number of Christians dying for their faith has fallen over the last half century, and currently averages 100,000 per year.

Christianity is declining in Europe at around 0.4 per cent annually and more sharply in the Middle East, where Christians now make up 4.2 per cent, compared to 12.7 per cent in 1900.

The world’s population has more than doubled in the last half-century to 8.3 billion and is forecast to reach 10.2 billion by 2075. Well over a quarter of the world’s population still has no access to Christianity, despite recent Bible translations and advances in missionary work, the report says.

gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity