https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_retribution The End of the World, commonly known as The Great Day of His Wrath, an 1851–1853 oil painting on canvas by the English painter John Martin. According to Frances Carey, the painting shows the "destruction of Babylon
and the material world by natural cataclysm". This painting, Carey
holds, is a response to the emerging industrial scene of London as a
metropolis in the early nineteenth century, and the original growth of
the Babylon civilisation and its final destruction. According to the Tate, the painting depicts a portion of Revelation 16, a chapter from the New Testament.
Divine retribution is supernaturalpunishment of a person, a group of people, or everyone by a deity in response to some action. Many cultures have a story about how a deity exacted punishment upon previous inhabitants of their land, causing their doom.
An example of divine retribution is the story found in many cultures about a great flood destroying all of humanity, as described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the HinduVedas, or the Book of Genesis (6:9–8:22), leaving one principal 'chosen' survivor. In the first example, it is Utnapishtim, in the Hindu Vedas it is Manu and in the last example Noah. References in the New Testament and the Quran to a man named Nuh (Noah) who was commanded by God to build an ark also suggest that one man and his followers were saved in a great flood.
In Greek mythology, the goddess Hera often became enraged when her husband, Zeus,
would impregnate mortal women, and would exact divine retribution on
the children born of such affairs. In some versions of the myth, Medusa was turned into her monstrous form as divine retribution for her vanity; in others it was a punishment for being raped by Poseidon.
The Bible refers to divine retribution as, in most cases, being delayed or "treasured up" to a future time. Sight of God's supernatural works and retribution would militate against faith in God's Word. William Lane Craig
says, in Paul's view, God's properties, his eternal power and deity,
are clearly revealed in creation, so that people who fail to believe in
an eternal, powerful creator
of the world are without excuse. Indeed, Paul says that they actually
do know that God exists, but they suppress this truth because of their
unrighteousness.
Some religions or philosophical positions have no concept of
divine retribution, nor posit a God being capable of or willing to
express such human sentiments as jealousy, vengeance, or wrath. For
example, in Deism and Pandeism,
the creator does not intervene in our Universe at all, either for good
or for ill, and therefore exhibits no such behavior. In Pantheism (as reflected in Pandeism as well), God is
the Universe and encompasses everything within it, and so has no need
for retribution, as all things against which retribution might be taken
are simply within God. This view is reflected in some pantheistic or
pandeistic forms of Hinduism, as well.
Buddhism
The concept of divine retribution is resolutely denied in Buddhism. Gautama Buddha did not endorse belief in a creator deity, refused to express any views on creation and stated that questions on the origin of the world are worthless. The non-adherence to the notion of an omnipotent creator deity or a prime mover
is seen by many as a key distinction between Buddhism and other
religions, though precise beliefs vary widely from sect to sect and
"Buddhism" should not be taken as a single, holistic religious concept.
Buddhists do accept the existence of beings in higher realms (see Buddhist cosmology), known as devas, but they, like humans, are said to be suffering in samsara, and are not necessarily wiser than us. The Buddha is often portrayed as a teacher of the gods, and superior to them. Despite this, there are believed to be enlightened devas.
But since there may also be unenlightened devas, there also may be
godlike beings who engage in retributive acts, but if they do so, then
they do so out of their own ignorance of a greater truth.
Despite this nontheism, Buddhism nevertheless fully accepts the theory of karma, which posits punishment-like effects, such as rebirths in realms of torment,
as an invariable consequence of wrongful actions. Unlike in most
Abrahamic monotheistic religions, these effects are not eternal, though
they can last for a very long time. Even theistic religions do not
necessarily see such effects as "punishment" imposed by a higher
authority, rather than natural consequences of wrongful action.
Judaism and Christianity
"The wrath of God", an anthropomorphic expression for the attitude which some believe God has towards sin, is mentioned many times in the Bible.
Genesis 11:1–9 – The confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel; To scatter them over the Earth
Genesis 19:23–29 – Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; people of no redeeming value
Genesis 38:6–10 – Destruction of Er and Onan; wickedness in the Lord's sight
Exodus 7–14 – Plagues of Egypt; to establish his power over that of the gods of Egypt
Exodus 19:10–25 – Divine threatenings at Mount Sinai; warn that the mountain is off limits and holy
Exodus 32 – Plagues at the incident of the golden calf; disowning the people for breaking his covenant with them
Leviticus 10:1–2 – Nadab and Abihu are burned; offering unauthorised fire in their censers
Leviticus 26:14–39 – Curses upon the disobedient; divine warning
Numbers 11 – A plague accompanies the giving of manna in the
wilderness; rejecting his gracious gift of heavenly food and failing his
test of obedience
Numbers 16 – The rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
– Their supernatural deaths and the plague that followed; insolence and
attempting self-promotion to roles they were unworthy of holding
Numbers 20:9–13 – Reprimand of Moses at the water of Meribah; disobeying the Lord's instruction, showing distrust and indifference in God's presence
Numbers 21 – Murmuring of the people and the plague of fiery flying serpent; spurning God's grace
Numbers 25 – Whoredom with the Moabites and resulting plague; breaching God's covenant through sexual immorality and worshipping other gods
Deuteronomy 28 – Curses pronounced upon the disobedient; another divine warning
The New Testament associates the wrath of God particularly with imagery of the Last Day, described allegorically in Romans 2:5 as the "day of wrath". The wrath of God is mentioned in at least twenty verses of the New Testament. Examples are:
John 3:36 – John the Baptist declares that whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son, or in some English translations, does not believe the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Romans 1:18
– For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the
truth.
Romans 5:9 – Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Romans 12:19
– Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God,
for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
Ephesians 5:6 – Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Revelation 6:17 – For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to withstand?
Revelation 14:19
– So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape
harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath
of God.
Revelation 15:1
– Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels
having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God was
finished.
Revelation 19:15
– From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the
nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the
winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
Heinrich Meyer
observes in his consideration of John 3:36 that the wrath of God
"remains" on anyone who rejects belief in the Son, meaning that the
rejection of faith is not the trigger for God's wrath, it is there
already. Their refusal to believe amounts to a refusal to allow the
wrath of God to be lifted from them.
Alleged modern examples
Since the 1812 Caracas earthquake occurred on Maundy Thursday while the Venezuelan War of Independence was raging, it was explained by royalist authorities as divine punishment for the rebellion against the Spanish Crown. The archbishop of Caracas,
Narciso Coll y Prat, referred to the event as "the terrifying but
well-deserved earthquake" which "confirms in our days the prophecies
revealed by God to men about the ancient impious and proud cities:
Babylon, Jerusalem and the Tower of Babel". This prompted the widely quoted answer of Simón Bolívar: "If Nature is against us, we shall fight Nature and make it obey".
While some Orthodox Jews believed that the Holocaust was divine retribution for sins, this argument has many critics. In contrast, many Germans at the time believed that the bombing of Germany was divine retribution for the November pogrom, although seeing the bombings as divine retribution became less popular after the war.
Various Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders claimed that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment on America, New Orleans or the world for any of a variety of alleged sins, including abortion, sexual immorality (including the gay pride event Southern Decadence), the policies of the American Empire, failure to support Israel, and failure of black people to study the Torah.
Televangelist Pat Robertson stirred up controversy after claiming that the 2010 Haiti earthquake
may have been God's belated punishment on Haitians for allegedly having
made a "pact with the Devil" to overthrow the French during the Haitian Revolution. Yehuda Levin, an Orthodox Jewishrabbi, linked the earthquake to gays in the military via an alleged Talmudic teaching that homosexuality causes earthquakes. Levin posted a video onto YouTube the same day as 2011 Virginia earthquake in which he said, "The Talmud states, "You have shaken your male member in a place where it doesn’t belong.
I too, will shake the Earth". He said that homosexuals shouldn't take
it personally: "We don’t hate homosexuals. I feel bad for homosexuals.
It’s a revolt against God and literally, there’s hell to pay".
Chaplain John McTernan said that Hurricane Isaac, like Hurricane Katrina, was God's punishment on homosexuals. Buster Wilson of the American Family Association concurred that statement.
McTernan also said that Hurricane Sandy may have been God's punishment against homosexuals. In addition, WorldNetDaily columnist William Koenig, along with McTernan himself, suggested that American support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict led to the hurricane.
Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
said the brutal 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake was "God's (Allah) rebuke
against Turkey because weak response against the holy book (Quran)
burning by right wing extremist groups in Sweden".
ISIS
officials said the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake was "God's (Allah) rage
against Turkey for renounced Sharia laws, replaced it with unbeliever
(Kuffar) laws and enforced it, adopted unbeliever lifestyles, declared
war against ISIS and allied with the army of unbelievers (NATO)" in their propaganda narrative.
After the brutal 2025 California wildfires, some Muslims viewed the wildfires as "God's (Allah) rage against Joe Biden administration's support of the Israel Defense Forces which committed war crimes against civilians during the Israel-Hamas war while some American Christians (mostly Trump supporters)
viewed it as punishment from God for the moral corruption and blasphemy
of some Hollywood A-tier stars and city residents — also suggested that
the fires were punishment from God for the city's support for Democratic Party policies. Many Christians compared the disaster to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Book of Genesis.
Rebuttals
Orthodox rabbi Shmuley Boteach denounces such claims since they carry the implication of victim blaming,
writing that "For many of the faithful, the closer they come to God,
the more they become enemies of man." He contrasts the Jewish tradition,
which affords a special place to "arguing with God", with an approach
to religion that "taught people not to challenge, but to submit. Not to
question, but to obey. Not how to stand erect, but to be stooped and
bent in the broken posture of the meek and pious." Speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic,
Boteach said "I utterly reject and find it sickening when people
believe that this is some kind of punishment from God – that really
upsets me."
A Jesuit priest, James Martin, wrote on Twitter in response to Hurricane Sandy
that "If any religious leaders say tomorrow that the hurricane is God's
punishment against some group they're idiots. God's ways are not our
ways."
In the West, since at least the mid-twentieth century there has
been a gradual decline in adherence to established Christianity. In a
process described as secularization, "unchurched spirituality" is gaining more prominence over organized religion.
Background
According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, Christianity will continue to be the world's largest religion
throughout the next four decades. However, Christianity may experience
the largest net losses in terms of religious conversion, according to
expectations. Worldwide, religious conversions are projected to have a
"modest impact on changes in the Christian population" between 2010 and
2050 and may negatively affect the growth of Christian population and its share of the world's populations "slightly".
However, these forecasts lack reliable data on religious conversion in
China, but according to media reports and expert assessments, it is
possible that the rapid growth of Christianity in China may maintain, or even increase, the current numerical advantage of Christianity as the largest religion in the world.
In the United States, there have been some conversions to Christianity
among those who grew up non-religious, but they have not been in numbers
that make up for those who were raised as Christians but became
religiously unaffiliated later in their lives.
Scholars have proposed that Church institutions decline in power
and prominence in most industrialized societies, except in cases in
which religion serves some function in society beyond merely regulating
the relationship between individuals and God. Developing countries in Latin America and Africa are not experiencing a decline, mostly because of religious conversion in those countries where the Church offers broad social support services. Together with the decline of Western Christians, increasing numbers of Christians in the global South will form a "new Christendom" in which the majority of the world's Christian population will be found in the South. According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism – a Protestant Christianmovement – is the fastest growing religion in the world; this growth is primarily due to religious conversion.
The European Values Study found that in most European countries in 2008, the majority of young respondents identified themselves as Christians. Unlike Western Europe, in Central and Eastern European countries, the proportion of Christians has either been stable or it has increased in the post-communist era.
A large majority (83%) of those who were raised as Christians in
Western Europe still identify as such. The remainder mostly
self-identify as religiously unaffiliated. Christianity is still the largest religion in Western Europe, where 71% of Western Europeans identified themselves as Christian, according to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center.
A 2015 analysis of the European Values Study in the Handbook of Children and Youth Studies identified a "dramatic decline" in religious affiliation across Europe from 1981 to 2008;
however, according to the same analysis, "the majority of young
respondents in Europe claimed that they belonged to a Christian
denomination".
In 2017, a report which was released by St. Mary's University, London,
concluded that Christianity "as a norm" was gone for at least the
foreseeable future. In at least 12 out of the 29 European countries
which were surveyed by the researchers, based on a sample of 629 people,
the majority of young adults reported that they were not religious.
The data was obtained from two questions, one asking "Do you consider
yourself as belonging to any particular religion or denomination?" to
the full sample and the other one asking "Which one?" to the sample who
replied with "Yes". The Pew Research Center
criticized the methodology of the two-step approach: "Presumably, this
is because some respondents who are relatively low in religious practice
or belief would answer the first question by saying that they have no
religion, while the same respondents would identify as Christian,
Muslim, Jewish, etc., if presented with a list of religions and asked to
choose among them. The impact of these differences in question wording
and format may vary considerably from country to country".
In 2018, the Pope lamented the ongoing trend of re-purposing churches: some of them were being used as pizza
joints, skating parks, strip clubs and bars. In Germany, 500 Catholic
churches have closed since 2000. Canada has lost 20% of its churches in
this time frame. This is the result of a lack of clergy who are willing
to staff churches as well as the result of the churches' inability to
meet costs. After a scandal in Naples where a deconsecrated church became the venue for a Halloween party which featured scantily clad witches who were seated on the former altar, Pope Francis,
acknowledging the decline in Church attendance, implored that the
deconsecrated churches be placed in service to fulfill the social needs
of caring for the poor.
In a new study published in 2022, Pew Research Center projects that if
the rate of switching continues to accelerate (primarily to no religious
affiliation), Christians will make up less than half of the American
population by 2070, with estimated ranges for that year falling between
35% and 46% of the American population (down from 64% in 2022 and down
from 91% in 1976).
The same study found a retention rate among American Christians closer
to 67%, with one-third of those who were Christian in childhood leaving
the religion by age 30.
In the Western world, historical developments since the reformation era in the sixteenth century led to a gradual separation of church and state
from the eighteenth century onward. From the mid-twentieth century,
there has been a gradual decline in adherence to established
Christianity. In a process described as secularization, "unchurched spirituality", which is characterized by observance of various spiritual concepts without adhering to any organized religion, is gaining more prominence.
Europe
Largest (non-)religious group by EU member state according to Eurobarometer survey 2019.
More than 75% Catholic
50–75% Catholic
Relative Catholic majority
50–75% Protestant
More than 75% Orthodox
50–75% non-religious
Relative non-religious majority
30% Catholic, 30% non-religious (Germany)
According to Scholars, in 2017, Europe's population was 77.8% Christian (up from 74.9% 1970). These changes were largely the result of the collapse of Communism and switching to Christianity in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries. According to the 2021 Eurobarometer survey, Christianity was the largest religion in the European Union, accounting 66.1% of the EU population, down from 72% in 2012.
In 2017, Pew Research Center have found that the number of
Christians in Europe, is in decline. This is mainly because the number
of deaths is estimated to exceed the number of births among European
Christians, in addition to lower fertility and switching to no religious
affiliation.
In 2018, Pew Research Center have found a retention rate among
Western European Christians of around 83% (ranging from 57% in the
Netherlands to 91% in Austria). Despite the decline in Christian affiliation in Western Europe, Christianity is still the largest religion in Western Europe, where 71% of Western Europeans identified themselves as Christian, according to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center. Unlike Western Europe, in Central and Eastern European countries the proportion of Christians has been stable or even increased in the post-communist era.
The decline of Christianity in the Czech Republic recorded throughout the censuses of 1991, 2001 and 2011.
In Western Europe, Christians have relatively low retention rates in
the Netherlands (57%), Norway (62%), Belgium and Sweden (65%); the
majority of those who have left Christianity in these countries now
identify as religiously unaffiliated.
Meanwhile, Christians have relatively high retention rates in Austria
(91%), Switzerland and Italy (90%), and Ireland and the United Kingdom
(89%).
The proportion of respondents who currently identify as Christian has
been in decline in Czechia and Slovakia; meanwhile, the proportion of
respondents who currently identify as Christian has been stable or even
increased in the rest of the Central and Eastern European countries.
Austria
In
Austria, between 1971 and 2021 Christianity declined from 93.8% to
68.2% (Catholism from 87.4% to 55.2% and Protestantism from 6% to 3.8%)
while people with no religion rose from 4.3% to 22.4%.
Currently, Christianity is adhered to by 68.2% of the country's
population, according to the 2021 national survey conducted by
Statistics Austria. Among Christians, 80.9% were Catholics, 7.2% were
Orthodox Christians (mostly belonging to the Eastern Orthodox Church),
5.6% were Protestants, while the remaining 6.2% were other Christians,
belonging to other denominations of the religion or not affiliated with
any denomination, and 22.4% declared they did not belong to any
religion, denomination or religious community.
France
Christianity has been declining in France
steadily since the 1960s. In 2021, a French poll showed that over half
of French citizens do not believe in God or consider Christianity to be
irrelevant. People who identified as Catholic declined from 81% in 1986
to 47% in 2020, while the number of people who identified as not
religious rose from 16% to 40%. In 2021, around 50% of all French respondents identified as Christians.
Finland
In Finland, 77.4% of the population practiced Christianity, and the figure decreased to 67.7% in 2021, about a 10 digit decrease in a decade.
The number of church members leaving the Church saw a particularly
large increase during the fall of 2010. This was caused by statements
regarding homosexuality and same-sex marriage – perceived to be
intolerant towards LGBT people – made by a conservative bishop and a politician representing Christian Democrats in a TV debate on the subject.
Germany
In
2023, it was estimated that around 48% of the German population were
Christians, among them, 46% members of the two large Christian churches. Attendance and membership in both Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany
have been declining for several decades. As of 2021, less than half of
German citizens belong to a church for the first time in the country's
history. Around 52.7% of the population were Christians, among them,
49.7% members of the two large Christian churches. Around 360,000 Catholics left the church in 2021 alone, and about 280,000 people have left Protestant churches.
In 2017, Pew Research Center have found that the number of deaths is
estimated to exceed the number of births among German Christians by
nearly 1.4 million.
Hungary
According to some sources, Christianity is declining in Hungary.
Between 1992 and 2022, Christianity declined from 92.9% to
42.5%(Catholicism from 67.8% to 29.2%). In 2022, only 35.5% of people
with age group 30-39 identified as Christians, the number further
dropping to 32.8% of people with age group 20-29. Among Catholics, only 12% regularly attend church.
On the other hand, a series of surveys conducted by Pew Research Center
in 2018 found that the share of Christians has remained fairly stable
in Hungary (75% who say they were raised Christian versus 76% who say
they are Christian now).
Ireland
Christianity, specifically Catholicism, remains the predominant religion in the Republic of Ireland. In the 2022 census, 75.7% of the population identified as Christian.
However, recent social changes, including the lifting of a ban on
abortion and the legalizing of same sex marriage, have solidified the
growth of liberal thinking in Ireland, particularly within the younger
community. An Irish priest, Fr. Kevin Hegarty, asserted in 2018 that the
church's authority was undermined by the papal encyclical, called Humanae Vitae, that established the Church's opposition to contraception. He reported that there is only one priest under the age of 40 in the entire diocese of Killala;
only two priests have been ordained over the last 17 years, and there
have been no candidates for the priesthood since 2013. Hegarty blames
this decline on the Church's positions on female ordination, contraception and sexuality. A continued requirement for children entering Irish Catholic
owned schools to be baptized keeps the overall level of baptisms high,
though the number of individuals practicing a faith or attending church
is decreasing. Problems arising from the sexual abuse of children and
the historical persecution of single mothers and their families have
also greatly contributed to the decline of Catholicism in Ireland.
Netherlands
Church converted into Belgian Beer Cafe in Utrecht, Netherlands.
The Netherlands has tolerated greater religious diversity among
Christian sects than Scandinavian countries, where "automatism" (default
registration in the Lutheran Church
by birth) has been the norm. Non-denominationalism increased in the
Netherlands during the 19th century. This process slowed between the
1930s and 1960s, after which non-denominational affiliation increased at
very high levels. The Church's ministry to the poor was not needed in
the modern Netherlands that had developed systems of government welfare
and secular charity. The declining influence of religious institutions
in public life allowed great religious, philosophical and theological
pluralism in the private and individual spheres of Dutch society. During the 1960s and 1970s, pillarization
began to weaken and the population became less religious. In 1971, 39%
of the Dutch population were members of the Roman Catholic Church; by
2014, their share of the population had dropped to 23.3%
(church-reported KASKI data), or to 23.7% (large sample survey by
Statistics Netherlands in 2015). The proportion of adherents of
Calvinism and Methodism declined in the same period from 31% to 15.5%. In 2022, the diocese of Amsterdam announced that 60% of Catholic churches (approximately 100 churches total) would be closing there in the next five years.
As of 2015, 63% of Dutch people think that religion does more harm than good.
A quarter of the population thinks that morality is threatened if no
one believes in God, down from 40% in 2006. The number of people
reporting that they never pray rose from 36% in 2006 to 53% in 2016.In 2015, Statistics Netherlands found that 50.1% of the adult population declared no religious affiliation.
Poland
In 2021 Polish census,
71.3% of Polish people identified as Catholic, although 20.53% refused
to answer the question about their religion. A 2022 poll showed that 84%
of Polish people identify as Catholic, but only 42% are practicing
Catholics, and among 18-24 year olds only 23% are practicing Catholics,
compared to 69% in 1992. The Catholic sex abuse scandal, the large
restrictions on abortions in Poland contributed to this decline in
Catholicism among the younger generations.
Adherence to established forms of church-related worship is in rapid
decline in Italy and Spain, and Church authority on social, moral and
ethical issues has been reduced.
Daily church attendance has declined but Catholicism still remains the
predominant religion in Spain and Italy. However, according to the
Spanish Center for Sociological Research, 55.6% of Spaniards self-identified as Catholic in 2023, but only 18.3% claimed to be "practicing" Catholics.
In Italy, about 68% of participants in a 2023 poll by Ipsos self-identified as "Christians". However, although most of the population claims religious affiliations, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) data, less than 19%
of Italians have declared themselves to be practicing. While the
proportion of those who have never practiced a religion has doubled,
from 16% in 2001 to 31% in 2022.
Attendance at Anglican churches had begun to decline in the United Kingdom by the Edwardian era, with both membership in mainstream churches and attendance at Sunday schools declining. Infant baptism declined after World War II. In 2014, Archbishop of CanterburyRowan Williams stated that the UK had become a "post-Christian country". That same year, only 4.3% of the population participated in a Church of England (C of E) Christmas service. Nevertheless, around 60% of all respondents still identified as Christians in the 2011 Census.
The Roman Catholic Church
has witnessed the highest retention rate among all Christian
denominations. In 2015, 9.2% of the UK population was Catholic.
According to scholar Stephen Bullivant, based on the British Social Attitudes Survey and European Social Survey,
the decline in Anglicanism has slowed thanks to "the return of
patriotism and pride in Christianity", and the number of followers of
the Anglican Church has increased slightly by 2017.
This growth however is still below that needed and is mainly from
African immigrants. Anglicanism has been majority African since 2001. In
2017, a report commissioned by the Christian group Hope Revolution
indicated that 21% of British youth identified as "active followers of
Jesus".
According to the 2018 British Social Attitudes Survey
(BSA), 33% of over-75s identified as C of E, while only 1% of people
aged 18−24 did so. The report stated that "Britain is becoming more
secular not because adults are losing their religion but because older
people with an attachment to the C of E and other Christian
denominations are gradually being replaced in the population by younger
unaffiliated people."
In the 2022 Scotland census, for the first time a majority of
people stated that they did not identify with any religion - 51.1%, up
from 36.7% in 2011.
Oceania
Australia
A deconsecrated church in Australia, now in use as a restaurant.
The percentage of people belonging to some form of Christianity
decreased from 52.2% the 2016 Census to 43.9% in the 2021 Census.
Meanwhile, those declaring that they had no religion increased from 30%
in the 2016 Census to 38.9% in the 2021 Census.
In a 2017 survey of teenage Australians aged 13–18, 52% declared that
they had no religion, compared with 38% Christian, 3% Muslim, 2%
Buddhist and 1% Hindu.
The only form of Christianity that showed a significant growth in 2016 Census is the Pentecostal church, increased from 2.1% up from 1.7% in 2016. However, like other forms of Christianity, it also has declined in 2021 Census. Most of the followers of the Pentecostal churches are young as the average age among them is 25.
New Zealand
Population recorded as having 'no religion' overtook Christianity in the 2018 census
In New Zealand, there has been a decrease in Christianity and
increase in the population declaring "No religious affiliation". The
reason for this is attributed to the decline in belief in institutional
religion and increase in Secularism. In the 1991 census, 20.2% of the New Zealand population followed No religion.
This proportion more than doubled in two decades, to reach 41.9%
in the 2013 census, and the figure increased again to 48.2% in the 2018
census. In 2023 Census, the figure reached 51.6%, crossing the 50% mark
for the first time. At the same time, the Christian population declined
from 37.31% in 2018 Census to 32.3% in 2023. In the 2018 Census, the New
Zealand population claiming "No religion" officially overtook
Christianity.
North America
Canada
Percentage of Christians per Canadian province or territory based on 2021 Census data
80-89.9% Christian
70-79.9% Christian
60-69.9% Christian
50-59.9% Christian
40-49.9% Christian
30-39.9% Christian
In 2021, Statistics Canada
found that only 68% of Canadians 15 years and older reported having a
religious affiliation, marking the first time the number had dipped
below 70% since StatCan began tracking religious affiliation in 1985. Christianity remains the largest religion in Canada, in the 2021 census, 53.3% of the population identified as Christians.
In Quebec, since the Quiet Revolution, over 500 churches (20% of the total) have been closed or converted for non-worship based uses. In the 1950s, 95% of Quebec's population went to Mass; in the present day, that number is closer to 5%. Despite the decline in church attendance, Christianity remains the largest religion in Quebec, where 64.82% of people were Christians, according to 2021 census.
With the loss of Christianity's monopoly after having once been central and integral to Canadian culture and daily life, Canada has become a post-Christian and secular state.
Mexico
Although
Mexico is the second largest Catholic country in the world in terms of
members, Catholicism has been declining over the past 30 years, from
89.7% of the population in 1990 to 77.7% in 2020. The number of
Catholics in Mexico have decreased by 20.5% since 1950. In 2020, 8.1% of Mexicans did not identify with any religion.
United States
Christianity, the largest religion in the United States, experienced a 20th-century high of 91% of the total population in 1976. This declined to 73.7% by 2016 and 64% in 2022.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) lost about 30% of its
congregation and closed 12.5% of its churches: the United Methodist
church lost 16.7% of its congregation and closed 10.2% of its churches.
The Presbyterian Church had the sharpest decline, losing over 40% of its congregation and 15.4% of its churches between 2000 and 2015. Infant baptism has also decreased; nationwide, Catholic baptisms declined by nearly 34%, and ELCA baptisms by over 40%.
In a study published in 2022, Pew Research Center projected that
if the rate of decline continues to accelerate, Christians will make up
less than half of the American population by 2070, with estimated ranges
for that year falling between 35% and 46% of the American population.
In 2024, Pew Research Center published a study stating that the
percentage of American adults who identify as religiously unaffiliated,
known as "nones", numbered 28%, higher than Catholics at 23% and
Evangelical Protestants at 24%.
In 2019, 65% of American adults described themselves as Christians.
In 2020, 47% of Americans said that they belonged to a church, down
from 70% in 1999; this was the first time that a poll found less than
half of Americans belonging to a church.
Nationwide Catholic membership increased between 2000 and 2017, but the
number of churches declined by nearly 11% and by 2019, the number of
Catholics decreased by 2 million people, dropping from 23% of the population to 21%.
Since 1970, weekly church attendance among Catholics has dropped from
55% to 20%, the number of priests declined from 59,000 to 35,000 and the
number of people who left Catholicism increased from under 2 million in
1975 to over 30 million today.
In 2022, there were fewer than 42,000 nuns in the United States, a
76% decline over 50 years, with fewer than 1% of nuns under age 40. The Southern Baptist Convention
has experienced decline: between 2006 and 2020, it lost 2.3 million
members, representing a 14% decrease in membership during that period. The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod reported in 2021 that the denomination has been declining in membership.
In 2020, the church reported approximately 1.8 million total baptized
members, a decline from its peak in 1971 when it reported nearly 2.8
million total baptized members.
The 2014 Religious Landscape Study found a large majority of
those who were raised as Christians in the United States still identify
as such (retention rate of 87.6% among those raised Christian), while
those who no longer identify as Christians mostly identify as
religiously unaffiliated.
More recent studies have found a retention rate closer to 67%, with
one-third of those who were Christian in childhood leaving the religion
by age 30. The 2014 study found that 84% of all adults who were raised as historically black Protestant continue to identify as such or identify now with different Christian denominations, Evangelical Protestant (81%), Mormon (76%), Catholic (75%), Orthodox Christian (73%), mainline Protestant (70%), and Jehovah's Witnesses (62%) continue to identify as such or identify now with different Christian denominations. Significant minorities of those raised in nearly all Christian denominational families now say they are unaffiliated, ranging from 13% among those raised historically black Protestant to 35% of those raised Jehovah's Witnesses.
A small minority of those raised in nearly all Christian denominational
families identify now with another faith, ranging from 3% among those
raised historically black Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, Mormon,
Orthodox Christian, and Jehovah's Witnesses to 4% of those raised
Catholic and mainline Protestant.
A 2022 Pew Research study found that 30% of Latinos in the United
States were religiously unaffiliated, and half of Latinos age 18-29 were
religiously unaffiliated.
In 2018, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that churches in Minnesota were being closed due to dwindling attendance. Mainline Protestant churches in Minnesota have seen the sharpest declines in their congregations. The Catholic Church has closed 81 churches between 2000 and 2017; the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis closed 21 churches in 2010 and has had to merge dozens more. In roughly the same time frame, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Minnesota has lost 200,000 members and closed 150 churches. The United Methodist Church,
which is Minnesota's second-largest Protestant denomination, has closed
65 of its churches. In the early 1990s, the Archdiocese of Chicago closed almost 40 Catholic churches and schools.
In 2016, increasing costs and priest shortages fueled plans to close or
consolidate up to 100 Chicago Catholic churches and schools in the next
15 years. The Archdiocese of New York announced in 2014 that nearly one-third of their churches were merging and closing. The Archdiocese of Boston closed more than 70 churches between 2004 and 2019. In 2021, the Archbishop of Cincinnati announced that 70% of Catholic churches would be closing there in the next several years. In May 2023, the Archbishop of St. Louis announced the closing of 35 parishes. In 2024, 13 Catholic parishes in New Orleans closed or merged. In 2024, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced that two thirds of their parishes would be closing. In 2024, the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, New York announced the closing of 89 churches. Nationally as of 2020, Catholic school enrollment declined by more than 430,000 students since 2008.
Moderate and liberal denominations in the United States have been
closing down churches at a rate three or four times greater than the
number of new churches being consecrated. However, according to The Christian Century,
the rate of annual closures is approximately 1% and quite low relative
to other types of institutions. It has been asserted that of the
approximately 3,700 churches that close each year, up to half are
unsuccessful new churches. The more conservative evangelical denominations have also declined, representing 23% of the population in 2006 and 14% in 2020 according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
The Orthodox Church and the denominations like Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Pentecostals
had slight increases in membership between 2003 and 2018, but the
number of adults in the United States who do not report any religious
affiliation nearly doubled over that period. However, in 2021, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the largest Orthodox church in the United States, reported membership losses during a 40-year period. In 2015, Pew Research Center reported a decline among the Orthodox Churches in the United States.
The Public Religion Research Institute's 2020 Census of American Religion showed that the overall decline of white Christians in America had slowed, stabilizing at around 44% of the population.
It also showed that, contrary to expectations, white evangelicals had
continued to decline and that they were now outnumbered by white
mainline Protestants. Conversely, the Pew Research Center found in 2022 that the decline had continued to accelerate over the previous fifty years.
An article written by Adam Gabbatt in April 2021 for the British newspaper The Guardian
claimed that an "allergic reaction" to conservative Christians had
caused the decline of the religion as a whole, primarily towards how
certain conservative Christians generally do not support the advancement
of LGBT rights and abortion rights,
a perspective primarily shared by younger people like millennials.
Gabbatt and other researchers interviewed in the article particularly
blame the Republican Party for pushing social conservative policies.
South America
Argentina
As of 2019, Catholicism in Argentina was around 63%, down from 76.5% in 2004.Irreligiosity grew from 12% to 19% in 9 years.
A 2019 survey made online by the Universidad de San Andrés showed
that that 76% of Argentinians believed in God (a decrease from 91% in
2008), 44% believed in heaven, 32% believed in hell, around 29% prayed
daily, only 13% attended religious services weekly and about 24%
considered religion to be very important in their lives.
Chile
Cases
of sexual abuse, attempts to hide information, and interference in
government affairs have been the main causes of the decline of
Christianity in Chile. According to the public broadcaster TVN, the number of Chileans who declare themselves Catholics fell from 73% in 2008 to 45% in 2018.
In addition, it is the Latin American country that has less trust (36%)
in the Church throughout the region according to Latinobarómetro. 63% of the Chilean population profess some branch of Christianity, according to the Encuesta Nacional Bicentenario identifies as Christian, with an estimated 45% of Chileans declaring to be part of the Catholic Church and 18% of Pentecostal churches. 5% of the population adhere to other religion.
Attempts to restore the Roman Catholic Christian faith in Chile have failed. The Argentine newspaper Clarín reported that Pope Francis's State visit to Chile in 2018 "had been the worst in his five years of pontificate." After the papal visit, the crisis in the Chilean Catholic Church increased. According to the Bicentenario
survey, atheism has grown from 21% in 2018 to 32% in 2019 and then to
36% in 2020 and 37% in 2021. Despite the decline of Roman Catholic
Church, Pentecostalism still maintains the same percentage of adherents since 2012.
Uruguay
Uruguay is one of the world's most secular nations. A recent study indicated that almost 44.5% of Uruguayans are unaffiliated.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_population_growth Christian population growth is the population growth of the global Christian community. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were more than 2.2 billion Christians
around the world in 2010, more than three times as many as the 600
million recorded in 1910. However, this rate of growth is slower than
the overall population growth over the same time period. In 2020, Pew estimated the number of Christians worldwide to be around 2.38 billion. According to various scholars and sources, high birth rates and conversions in the Global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growth.
In 2023, it was reported: "There will be over 2.38 billion Christians
worldwide by the middle of 2023 and around 2.9 billion by 2050,
according to a report published by the Pew research centre.
Summary
Demographics of major traditions within Christianity (Pew Research Center, 2010 data)
The Christian fertility rate is 2.7 children per woman, which is
higher than the global average fertility rate of 2.5. Globally,
Christians were only slightly older (median age of 30) than the global
average median age of 28 in 2010. According to Pew Research religious switching is projected to have a modest impact on changes in the Christian population. According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world; this growth is primarily due to religious conversion to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.
According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, approximately 2.7 million converting to Christianity from another religion, World Christian Encyclopedia also cited that Christianity rank at first place in net gains through religious conversion.
While according to "The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion",
approximately 15.5 million converting to Christianity from another
religion, while approximately 11.7 million leave Christianity, and most
of them become irreligious, resulting in a net gain of 3.8 million.
Christianity earns about 65.1 million people due to factors such as
birth rate and religious conversion while losing 27.4 million people due
to factors such as death rate and religious apostasy. Most of the net
growth in the numbers of Christians are in Africa, Latin America and
Asia.
Fertility rate
The
Christian fertility rate has varied throughout history. The Christian
fertility rate also varies from country to country. In the 20-year
period from 1989 to 2009, the average world fertility rate
decreased from 3.50 to 2.58, a fall of 0.92 children per woman, or 26%.
The weighted average fertility rate for Christian nations decreased in
the same period from 3.26 to 2.58, a fall of 0.68 children per woman, or
21%. The weighted average fertility rate for Muslim nations decreased
in the same period from 5.17 to 3.23, a fall of 1.94 children per woman,
or 38%. While Muslims have an average of 3.1 children per woman—the
highest rate of all religious groups—Christians are second, with 2.7 children per woman.
The gap in fertility between the Christian- and Muslim-dominated
nations fell from 67% in 1990 to 17% in 2010. According to a study
published by the Pew Research Center
in 2017, births to Muslims between the years of 2010 and 2015 made up
an estimated 31% of all babies born around the world. By the Pew
Research Center's estimates, the Muslim fertility rate and Christian
fertility rate will converge by 2040.
According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, approximately 2.7 million convert to Christianity annually from another religion; World Christian Encyclopedia also stated that Christianity ranks in first place in net gains through religious conversion. While, according to book "The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion", which published by the professor of Christian mission Charles E. Farhadian, and the professor of psychology Lewis Ray Rambo,
between 1990 and 2000, approximately 1.9 million people converted to
Christianity from another religion, with Christianity ranking first in
net gains through religious conversion.
According to "The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion", in
mid-2005 approximately 15.5 million converted to Christianity from
another religion, approximately 11.7 million left Christianity, and most
of them became irreligious, resulting in a net gain of 3.8 million.
Christianity added about 65.1 million people due to factors such as
birth rate and religious conversion, while it lost 27.4 million people
due to factors such as death rate and religious apostasy in mid-2005.
Most of the net growth in the numbers of Christians is in Africa, Latin
America and Asia.
According to scholar Philip Jenkins Christianity was growing rapidly in China and some other Asian countries and sub-Saharan Africa around 2002.
According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world; this growth is primarily due to religious conversion to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. According to Pulitzer Center 35,000 people become Pentecostal or "Born again" every day. According to scholar Keith Smith of Georgia State University "many scholars claim that Pentecostalism is the fastest growing religious phenomenon in human history", and according to scholar Peter L. Berger of Boston University "the spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion".
According to a 2012 report by the Singapore Management University, more people in Southeast Asia were converting to Christianity, and these new converts are mostly Chinese business managers. Scholars Juliette Koning and Heidi Dahles of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stated that there was a "rapid expansion of charismatic Christianity from the 1980s onwards. Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Indonesia, and Malaysia were said to have the fastest-growing Christian
communities and the majority of the new believers are "upwardly mobile,
urban, middle-class
Chinese". Asia has the second largest Pentecostal-charismatic
Christians of any continent, with the number growing from 10 million to
135 million between 1970 and 2000". According to scholar Wang Zuoa, 500,000 Chinese convert to Protestantism annually.According to scholar Todd Hartch of Eastern Kentucky University, by 2005, around 6 million Africans converted to Christianity annually.
Conversion into Christianity has significantly increased among Korean, Chinese, and Japanese in the United States. In 2012, the percentage of Christians in these communities were 71%, 30% and 37% respectively.
Due to conversion, the number of Chinese Christians increased significantly from 4 million before 1949 to 67 million in 2010.
The 2015 Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census study
published by Baylor University institute for studies of religion
estimates that 10.2 million Muslims converted to Christianity based on
global missionary data. Countries with the largest numbers of Muslims converted to Christianity according to this study include Indonesia (6,500,000), Nigeria (600,000), Iran (500,000 versus only 500 in 1979), the United States (450,000), Ethiopia (400,000) and Algeria (380,000). Indonesia
is home to the largest Christian community made up of converts from
their former Islamic faith; according to various sources, since the mid
and late 1960s, between two million and 2.5 million Muslims converted to
Christianity.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, in 2007 experts estimated that thousands of Muslims in the Western world were converting to Christianity annually, but did not publicize their conversions due to fear of retribution.
Church membership in 2019 was 1.34 billion people (18% of the global population at the time), increasing from the 1950 figure of 437 million and 654 million in 1970. On 31 December 2008, membership was 1.166 billion, an increase of 11.54% over the same date in 2000, and slightly greater than the rate of increase of the world population (10.77%). The increase was 33.02% in Africa, but only 1.17% in Europe. It was 15.91% in Asia, 11.39% in Oceania, and 10.93% in Americas.
As a result, Catholics were 17.77% of the total population in Africa,
63.10% in Americas, 3.05% in Asia, 39.97% in Europe, 26.21% in Oceania,
and 17.40% of the world population. Of the world's Catholics, the
proportion living in Africa grew from 12.44% in 2000 to 14.84% in 2008,
while those living in Europe fell from 26.81% to 24.31%. However,
Catholic numbers have grown in Scandinavia where the Catholics in Nordic
dioceses have tripled or even quadrupled. For example, in Denmark,
Norway, Sweden and Finland, 330,000 Catholics have now registered in
their dioceses. Membership of the Catholic Church is attained through baptism, and from 1983 to 2009, if someone formally left the Church, that fact was noted in the register of the person's baptism.
Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiles the Vatican's yearbook, said in a 2008 interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that "For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us." He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population—a stable percentage—while Muslims were at 19.2 percent. "It is true that while Muslim
families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children,
Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer", the
monsignor said,
though Africa and parts of Asia are the exception. If the UN report in
2018 is on target, Africa's population will grow to 4.5 billion by 2100,
adding to all African religious groups. Muslims in 2010 represented as much as 23.4% of the total world population and this is expected to increase to 26.3% by 2030. In 2016, the global Catholic population was projected to grow to 1.63 billion in 2050.
According to Mark Jürgensmeyer of the University of California, popular Protestantism is one of the most dynamic religious movements in the contemporary world. Changes in worldwide Protestantism over the last century have been significant. Since 1900, due primarily to conversion, Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America.
There are more than 1.17 billion Protestants worldwide, among approximately 2.4 billion Christians. In 2010, a total of more than 800 million included 300 million in
Sub-Saharan Africa, 260 million in the Americas, 140 million in
Asia-Pacific region, 100 million in Europe and 2 million in Middle
East-North Africa. Protestants account for nearly forty percent of Christians worldwide and more than one tenth of the total human population.
Protestantism is growing in Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, Muslim world, and Oceania, while remaining stable or declining in Anglo America and Europe, with some exceptions such as France, where it was nearly eradicated after the abolition of the Edict of Nantes by the Edict of Fontainebleau and the following persecution of Huguenots, but now is claimed to be stable in number or even growing slightly and the Spain, where the Protestantism is growing faster than other religious groups. According to some, Russia is another country to see a Protestant revival.
According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world; this growth is primarily due to religious conversion to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.According to Pulitzer Center 35,000 people become Pentecostal or "Born again" every day. According to scholar Keith Smith of Georgia State University "many scholars claim that Pentecostalism is the fastest growing religious phenomenon in human history", and according to scholar Peter L. Berger of Boston University "the spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion".
The U.S. Center for World Mission
stated a growth rate of Christianity at 2.3% for the period 1970 to
1996 (slightly higher than the world population growth rate at the
time). This increased the claimed percentage of adherents of
Christianity from 33.7% to 33.9%.
The World Christian Database as of 2007 estimated the growth rate of
Christianity at 1.32%. High birth rates and conversions were cited as
the main reasons.
Using data from the period 2000–2005 the 2006 Christian World
Database estimated that by number of new adherents, Christianity was the
fastest growing religion in the world with 30,360,000 new adherents in
2006. This was followed by Islam with 23,920,000 and Hinduism with
13,224,000 estimated new adherents in the same period.
According to 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there are more than 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, up from about 600 million in 1910.
The 2015 "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census" estimates 10,283,700 Muslim converted to Christianity around the world.
On 2 April 2015, the Pew Research Center
published a Demographic Study about "The Future of World Religions:
Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050" with projections regarding
Christianity.
The projection begins with 2010 statistics when "Christianity was by
far the world's largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion
adherents, nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth.
Islam was second, with 1.6 billion adherents, or 23% of the global
population."
Projected growth of Christianity by 2050
Some of the projections are as follows:
Over the 2010-2050 period, Christians will remain the largest religious group
with 30.7% of the world's population. However, Islam will grow faster
and become 29.7% of the world's population. Therefore, by 2050 there
will be 2.8 billion Muslims compared to 2.9 billion Christians.
"In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050".
"Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa".
Reasons given for the projected growth
Some of the reasons the Study gives are as follows:
The change in the world's religious is "driven primarily by
differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among
the world's major religions, as well as by people switching faiths".
Fertility rates. "Religions with many adherents in developing
countries, where birth rates are high, and infant mortality rates
generally have been falling, are likely to grow quickly." Therefore,
much of the growth of Christianity is projected to take place in
sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, Christians have a birth rate of 2.7
children per woman. But Muslims have a higher rate, namely, an average
of 3.1 children per woman. This differential is one of the reasons that
the Muslim population is growing faster than the Christian.
Size of youth population. "In 2010, more than a quarter of
the world's total population (27%) was under the age of 15." Christian
youth under 15 were the same as the 27% global average. But an even
higher percentage of Muslims (34%) were younger than 15. This higher
youth population is one of the reasons that from 2010 to 2050 Muslims
are projected to grow faster than Christians.
Size of old population. In 2010, "11% of the world's
population was at least 60 years old", 14% of the Christian population
was over 60 years old, but only 7% of Muslims were over 60. This is
another reason that Muslims are projected to grow faster than
Christians.
Switching. A loss of 66 million Christians is projected to
come through switching. Most of the loss is projected to come from
Christians "joining the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated".
Christianity has been estimated to be growing rapidly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In Africa, for instance, in 1900, there were only 8.7 million adherents of Christianity; now there are 390 million, and it is expected that by 2025 there will be 600 million Christians in Africa. The number of Catholics in Africa has increased from one million in 1902 to 329,882,000. From 2015 to 2016 alone, Africa saw an increase of 49,767,000 Catholics, a larger increase than any other continent.
According to scholar Todd Hartch of Eastern Kentucky University, by 2005, around 6 million Africans converted to Christianity annually.
According to scholar R.V. Dmitriev, over 3.3 million African converted to Christianity in 2010.
A 2015 study estimates 2,161,000 Muslim Africans that convert to Christianity.
Since 1960 a growing number of Algerian Muslims are converting to Christianity.
Converts to Christianity may be investigated and searched by the authorities. Conversions to Christianity have been most common in Kabylie, especially in the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou.
A 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Algeria.
Benin
A 2015 study estimates 40,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Benin.
Burkina Faso
A 2015 study estimates 200,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Burkina Faso.
Burundi
A 2015 study estimates 2,200 Muslims converted to Christianity in Burundi.
Cameroon
A 2015 study estimates 90,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Cameroon.
Since 1960 a growing number of Moroccan Muslims are converting to Christianity.
On 27 March 2010, the Moroccan magazine TelQuel stated that thousands of Moroccans had converted to Christianity.
Pointing out the absence of official data, Service de presse Common
Ground cites unspecified sources that stated that about 5,000 Moroccans became Christians between 2005 and 2010.
According to the International Religious Freedom Report for 2014
estimate that there may be as many as 8,000 Christian citizens
throughout the country, but many reportedly do not meet regularly due to
fear of government surveillance and social persecution.
According to different estimates, there are about 25,000-45,000
Moroccan Christians of Berber or Arab descent mostly converted from
Islam. Other sources give a number of a bit more than 1,000. A popular Christian program by Brother Rachid
has led many former Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East to
convert to Christianity. His programs have been credited with assisting
in the conversion of over 150,000 former Muslims to Christianity in Morocco.
The United States government does not collect religious data in its census. The survey below, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008, was a random digit-dialed telephone survey of 54,461 American residential households in the contiguous United States. The 1990 sample size was 113,723; 2001 sample size was 50,281.
Adult respondents were asked the open-ended question,
"What is your religion, if any?" Interviewers did not prompt or offer a
suggested list of potential answers. The religion of the spouse or
partner was also asked. If the initial answer was "Protestant" or
"Christian" further questions were asked to probe which particular
denomination. About one-third of the sample was asked more detailed
demographic questions.
Among the Asian population in the United States, conversion into
Christianity is significantly increasing among Korean, Chinese, and
Japanese. By 2012 the percentage of Christians in these communities was 71%, 31%, and 38% respectively.
Data from the Pew Research Center states that, as of 2013, about 1.6 million adult American Jews identify themselves as Christians, most as Protestants. According to the same data, most of the Jews who identify themselves as some sort of Christian (1.6 million) were raised as Jewish or are Jews by ancestry. According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 19% of those who say they were raised Jewish in the United States, consider themselves Christian.
According to Pew Research,
Christianity loses more people than it gains from religious conversion.
It found that 23% of Americans raised as Christians no longer
identified with Christianity, whereas 6% of current Christians
converted. This was in contrast to Islam in America, where the number of people who leave the religion is roughly equal to the number who convert to it. The National Catholic Register claims that in 2015 there were 450,000 American Muslimconverts to Christianity and that 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually in the United States. According to scholar Rob Scott of University of Tasmania in 2010 there were "approximately 180,000 Arab Americans and about 130,000 Iranian Americans who converted from Islam to Christianity".
Religious Self-Identification of the U.S. Adult Population: 1990, 2001, 2008
Figures
are not adjusted for refusals to reply; investigators suspect refusals
are possibly more representative of "no religion" than any other group.
Source:ARIS 2008
Group
1990 adults x 1,000
2001 adults x 1,000
2008 adults x 1,000
Numerical Change 1990– 2008 as % of 1990
1990 % of adults
2001 % of adults
2008 % of adults
change in % of total adults 1990– 2008
Adult population, total
175,440
207,983
228,182
30.1%
Adult population, Responded
171,409
196,683
216,367
26.2%
97.7%
94.6%
94.8%
−2.9%
Total Christian
151,225
159,514
173,402
14.7%
86.2%
76.7%
76.0%
−10.2%
Catholic
46,004
50,873
57,199
24.3%
26.2%
24.5%
25.1%
−1.2%
non-Catholic Christian
105,221
108,641
116,203
10.4%
60.0%
52.2%
50.9%
−9.0%
Baptist
33,964
33,820
36,148
6.4%
19.4%
16.3%
15.8%
−3.5%
Mainline Christian
32,784
35,788
29,375
−10.4%
18.7%
17.2%
12.9%
−5.8%
Methodist
14,174
14,039
11,366
−19.8%
8.1%
6.8%
5.0%
−3.1%
Lutheran
9,110
9,580
8,674
−4.8%
5.2%
4.6%
3.8%
−1.4%
Presbyterian
4,985
5,596
4,723
−5.3%
2.8%
2.7%
2.1%
−0.8%
Episcopalian/Anglican
3,043
3,451
2,405
−21.0%
1.7%
1.7%
1.1%
−0.7%
United Church of Christ
438
1,378
736
68.0%
0.2%
0.7%
0.3%
0.1%
Christian Generic
25,980
22,546
32,441
24.9%
14.8%
10.8%
14.2%
−0.6%
Christian Unspecified
8,073
14,190
16,384
102.9%
4.6%
6.8%
7.2%
2.6%
Non-denominational Christian
194
2,489
8,032
4040.2%
0.1%
1.2%
3.5%
3.4%
Protestant – Unspecified
17,214
4,647
5,187
−69.9%
9.8%
2.2%
2.3%
−7.5%
Evangelical/Born Again
546
1,088
2,154
294.5%
0.3%
0.5%
0.9%
0.6%
Pentecostal/Charismatic
5,647
7,831
7,948
40.7%
3.2%
3.8%
3.5%
0.3%
Pentecostal – Unspecified
3,116
4,407
5,416
73.8%
1.8%
2.1%
2.4%
0.6%
Assemblies of God
617
1,105
810
31.3%
0.4%
0.5%
0.4%
0.0%
Church of God
590
943
663
12.4%
0.3%
0.5%
0.3%
0.0%
Other Protestant Denominations
4,630
5,949
7,131
54.0%
2.6%
2.9%
3.1%
0.5%
Churches of Christ
1,769
2,593
1,921
8.6%
1.0%
1.2%
0.8%
−0.2%
Seventh-Day Adventist
668
724
938
40.4%
0.4%
0.3%
0.4%
0.0%
Jehovah's Witnesses
1,381
1,331
1,914
38.6%
0.8%
0.6%
0.8%
0.1%
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
2,487
2,697
3,158
27.0%
1.4%
1.3%
1.4%
0.0%
Total non-Christian religions
5,853
7,740
8,796
50.3%
3.3%
3.7%
3.9%
0.5%
Jewish
3,137
2,837
2,680
−14.6%
1.8%
1.4%
1.2%
−0.6%
Eastern Religions
687
2,020
1,961
185.4%
0.4%
1.0%
0.9%
0.5%
Buddhist
404
1,082
1,189
194.3%
0.2%
0.5%
0.5%
0.3%
Muslim
527
1,104
1,349
156.0%
0.3%
0.5%
0.6%
0.3%
New Religious Movements & Others
1,296
1,770
2,804
116.4%
0.7%
0.9%
1.2%
0.5%
None/ No religion, total
14,331
29,481
34,169
138.4%
8.2%
14.2%
15.0%
6.8%
Agnostic+Atheist
1,186
1,893
3,606
204.0%
0.7%
0.9%
1.6%
0.9%
Did Not Know/ Refused to reply
4,031
11,300
11,815
193.1%
2.3%
5.4%
5.2%
2.9%
Highlights:
The ARIS 2008 survey was carried out from February–November 2008
and collected answers from 54,461 respondents who were questioned in
English or Spanish.
The American population self-identifies as predominantly Christian but Americans are slowly becoming less Christian.
86% of American adults identified as Christians in 1990 and 76% in 2008.
The historic Mainline churches and denominations have experienced
the steepest declines while the non-denominational Christian identity
has been trending upward particularly since 2001.
The challenge to Christianity in the United States does not come
from other religions but rather from a rejection of all forms of
organized religion.
34% of American adults considered themselves "Born Again or Evangelical Christians" in 2008.
The U.S. population continues to show signs of becoming less
religious, with one out of every seven Americans failing to indicate a
religious identity in 2008.
The "Nones" (no stated religious preference, atheist, or
agnostic) continue to grow, though at a much slower pace than in the
1990s, from 8.2% in 1990 to 14.1% in 2001, to 15.0% in 2008.
Asian Americans are substantially more likely to indicate no religious identity than other racial or ethnic groups.
One sign of the lack of attachment of Americans to religion is that 27% do not expect a religious funeral at their death.
Based on their stated beliefs rather than their religious
identification in 2008, 70% of Americans believe in a personal God,
roughly 12% of Americans are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unknowable or
unsure), and another 12% are deistic (a higher power but no personal
God).
America's religious geography has been transformed since 1990.
Religious switching along with Hispanic immigration has significantly
changed the religious profile of some states and regions. Between 1990
and 2008, the Catholic population proportion of the New England states
fell from 50% to 36% and in New York it fell from 44% to 37%, while it
rose in California from 29% to 37% and in Texas from 23% to 32%.
Overall the 1990–2008 ARIS time series shows that changes in
religious self-identification in the first decade of the 21st century
have been moderate in comparison to the 1990s, which was a period of
significant shifts in the religious composition of the United States
According to scholar Philip Jenkins Christianity is growing rapidly in China and some other Asian countries.
According to a report by the Singapore Management University, more people in Southeast Asia are converting to Christianity, and these new converts are mostly Chinese business managers.
According to scholar Juliette Koning and Heidi Dahles of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam there is a "rapid expansion of charismatic Christianity from the 1980s onwards. Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Indonesia, and Malaysia are said to have the fastest-growing Christian
communities and the majority of the new believers are "upwardly mobile,
urban, middle-class
Chinese". Asia has the second largest Pentecostal-charismatic
Christians of any continent, with the number growing from 10 million to
135 million between 1970 and 2000".
According to scholars Khalil Bilici, during the Bangladesh Liberation War
(March–December 1971), a significant number of Bangladeshis left Islam
to join Christianity (because missionaries stood with them during their
difficult times during the civil strife) or to atheism after 1971 due to
their experience of oppression conducted by fellow Muslims from West Pakistan.
A 2015 study estimates some 130,000 Christians from a Muslim
background residing in the Bangladesh, though not all are necessarily
citizens.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
estimated the numbers of the Muslim who convert to Christianity in
Bangladesh has risen from two hundred thousand to four hundred thousand
between 1971 and 1991.
The Home Office estimated that up to 91,000 Muslims have converted to Christianity in Bangladesh from 2012 to 2018.
In recent years, the number of Chinese Christians has increased significantly, particularly since the easing of restrictions on religious activity during economic reforms
in the late 1970s; Christians were 4 million before 1949 (including
Catholics and Protestants), and reaching 67 million (unofficial figure)
in 2010. Various statistical analyses have found that between 2% and 4% of the Chinese identify as Christian.
The government declared in 2018 that there are over 44 million Christians (Protestant: 38M, Catholic: 6M) in China.
According to a study by a scholar Fenggang Yang from Purdue University,
Christianity is "spreading among the Chinese of South-East Asia", and
"Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity is growing more quickly in
China", also according to him, more than half of them have university degrees.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations the "number of Chinese Protestants has grown by an average of 10 percent annually since 1979" as of 2018.
Christianity is the third largest religion in India after Hinduism and Islam, with approximately 30 million followers.
A 2015 study estimates some 40,000 Christian believers from a Muslim
background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of
Protestantism or Catholicism.
While the exact number of Dalit converts to Christianity in India is not available, scholar William R. Burrow of Colorado State University estimated that about 8% of Dalit have converted to Christianity.
According to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, Christianity
in India gained an increase from conversion, most of the Christian
converts in India are former Hindus.
According to various sources, between 1965 and 1985 about 2.5 million Indonesian converted from Islam to Christianity.
The "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census"
found that between 1960 and 2015 about 6.5 million Indonesian Muslims
convert to Christianity.
Some reports also show that many of the Chinese Indonesians minority convert to Christianity.
Demographer Aris Ananta reported in 2008 that "anecdotal evidence
suggests that more Buddhist Chinese have become Christians as they
increased their standards of education".
Significant numbers of Muslims convert to Christianity in Iran, estimates range from 300,000 to 500,000 by various sources. Other estimates put the numbers between 800,000 and 3 million.
According to scholar Ladan Boroumand "Iran [as of 2020 was] witnessing the highest rate of Christianization in the world", and according to scholar Shay Khatiri of Johns Hopkins University "Islam is the fastest shrinking religion in there [Iran], while Christianity is growing the fastest",
and in 2018 "up to half a million Iranians are Christian converts from
Muslim families, and most of these Christians are evangelicals", and he adds "recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between 1 million and 3 million".
Christianity is reportedly the fastest growing religion in Iran with an average annual rate of 5.2%.
A 2015 study estimates between 100,000 and 500,000 believers Christians
from a Muslim background living in Iran, most of them evangelical
Christians.
Several thousand Israelis practice Messianic Jewish
denominations, which are often considered as Christian sects. The
Messianic Jews usually combine Jewish and Christian practices but do
recognize Jesus
as the Messiah. There are no exact numbers on those communities, but it
is believed that several hundred to several thousand ethnic Jews belong
to this tradition as well as several thousand Israelis of mixed
ancestry (mostly mixed Jewish and Slavic).
Christianity is one of several minority religions in Japan, accounting for about not more than 1 percent of the population.
According to a poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in 2006, Christianity has increased significantly in Japan, particularly among youth, and a high number of teens are becoming Christians.
A 2015 study estimates some 6,500 Christian believers from a
Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of
Eastern Orthodoxy.
In spite of the persecution of converts from Islam to
Christianity, a 2015 study estimates some 50,000 believers in Christ
from a Muslim background residing in the country.
There are a number of believers in Christ from a Muslim
background in the country, though many are not citizens. A 2015 study
estimates that around 350 people in the country follow these beliefs.
There is no well researched agreement on the actual number of Malaysian Muslim converts to Christianity in Malaysia. But according to Tan Sri Dr Harussani Zakaria, they are 260,000.
A 2015 study estimates some 2,000 Muslims who converted to
Christianity in Syria, most of them belonging to some form of
Protestantism or Oriental Orthodoxy.
In spite of opposition in relation to conversion from Islam to
Christianity, a 2015 study estimates some 2,600 to 3,000 Christians with
Muslim backgrounds reside in the country.
According to the newspaper "Milliyet", 35,000 Muslim Turks converted to Christianity in 2008.
A 2015 study estimates some 4,500 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in Turkey, most of them Turks. The ethnic TurkishProtestant Christian community in Turkey number about 4,000-5,000 adherents most of them came from Muslim Turkish background.
A 2015 study estimates some 10,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some sort of evangelical or charismatic Protestant community.
Since 1960 a growing number of Albanian Muslims are converting to Christianity.
A 2015 study estimated some 13,000 followers of Christ from a Muslim
background, though it is not clear to which Christian churches these
people had converted.
Converting to Christianity is growing among Muslims in the Albanian diaspora.
Reports estimated that thousands of Muslims (mostly Bulgarian Turks) convert every year to Christianity in Bulgaria.
A 2015 study estimates 45,000 Christian believers from a Muslim
background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of
Protestantism.
According to Roman Silantyev the executive secretary of the
Inter-religious Council in Russia, about 2 million Muslims in Russia
have converted to Christianity between during the last fifteen years
while only 2,500 Russians converted to Islam.
In recent years
a number of Swedish Muslims have converted from Islam to the Church of
Sweden, most noticeably by Iranians, but also by Arabs and Pakistanis.
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