Report: Global religious population growing faster than non-religious

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A new report by Lifeway Research has shown that the population of religious people is growing at a faster rate than the population of non-religious people, the Christian Post (CP) reports. In particular, the report showed that the number of Christians worldwide increased 1.17% from 2000 to 2022.

Titled the 2022 Status of Global Christianity, the report found that the population of people who identify with a particular religion grew at a rate of 1.27% between 2000 and 2022, CP said. Meanwhile, although the number of atheists has grown to around 147 million people worldwide, atheism increased only by 0.18% in the same 22-year period.

The report projected that the number of atheists will decrease to approximately 143 million by 2050, while the number of religious people will increase from around 7 billion now to some 9 billion by 2050, CP said.

Notably, the report found that Evangelicals (1.8%) and Pentecostals/charismatics (1.88%) were the fastest-growing Christian denominations. The report projects that the number of Pentecostals will exceed 1 billion in 2050.

According to the report, Christianity is growing the fastest in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania, CP said. The Christian population in Africa grew by 2.27% between 2000-2022. Asia, Latin America, and Oceania also have strong rates of Christian growth, at 1.50%, 1.09% and 0.73%, respectively.

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