Islam, which is currently the second largest religion in the world, with a population of 1,599,700,000, according to a 2010 report, will add another 1,161,780,000 people to its population in the next 25 years, increasing the Muslim population to over two billion by the year 2050.
Muslim Population: The population of Muslims across the world is expected to surge by over 1.16 billion or 1,161,780,000 to be precise, not in the next 100 or 200 years, but in the next few decades, a new research has estimated. According to study by the Pew Research Center on world’s fastest growing religions, including Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism, the global Muslim population is estimated to rise to over two billion by 2050, which will make Muslims the largest religious community in the world.
Islam to become world’s largest religion
As per the report, Islam, which is currently the second largest religion in the world, with a population of 1,599,700,000, according to a 2010 report, will add another 1,161,780,000 people to its population in the next 25 years, increasing the Muslim population to over two billion by the year 2050, and making Islam the most dominant religion globally.
Christianity, the largest religious community in the world today, with a headcount of 2,168,330,000 Christians, or roughly 31.4 percent of the total global population, is estimated to surge by around 80 crore by 2050, as per the report. This will push Christians to the second place on the global list of largest religious communities, the report said, adding that Christians will have a population of 2,918,070,000 by 2050, a difference of 74,97,40,000 from 2010 to 2050.
Why Muslim population is rapidly increasing?
According to the report, there are various factors contributing to the rapid surge in Muslim population, such as having a young population and a high fertility rate, which is the highest among religious groups. The report revealed that Muslim women have fertility rate of 3.1, followed by Christian women at 2.7.
In developing countries, the fertility rate of Muslims and Christians is very high, while the mortality rate is low, due to which their population is rapidly increasing, an expected to rise by 12 percent by 2050, in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, the report noted.
In its 2010 report, the Pew Research Center had revealed that 34 percent of the world’s Muslim population was under 15 years of age, 60 percent were between 15 and 59 years, and only 7 percent were 60 or older. Most Muslims live in Africa and the Middle East, where global population growth rates are projected to be the highest.
Notably, if the trend predicted by the Pew Research Center is accurate, India will become home to world’s largest Muslim population, even as Islam continues to be the fastest growing religion in the world.
