Islam is second to Christianity in estimates of world religions with the most followers

This article is more than one year old.
Published on December 10, 2019 at 07:50
3 min read
By AFP Malaysia

A Facebook post published in Malaysian language in October 2019 claims that Islam is the religion with the most followers in the world. The post has been shared tens of thousands of times. But according to multiple sources, Islam is second to Christianity in estimates of world religions with the most followers.

The Facebook post was published here on October 6, 2019.

It contains a cartoon which shows Muslims praying. The accompanying Malaysian-language caption translates to English as: “Do you know? Today, Islam is the number one religion with the most devotees in the world. God is the greatest!”

The post has been shared more than 35,000 times.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post

The post is misleading. In fact, Christianity has the most followers of all the world’s religions, according to multiple government and scholarly sources.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which publishes global and national demographic statistics, listed Christianity as the largest religion in the world in 2018. On its website here, it stated 31.4 percent of the world’s population were Christians, and 23.2 percent were Muslims.

Below is a screenshot of the CIA data with the statistic highlighted in red by AFP:

Screenshot of the CIA website

The World Economic Forum (WEF), a major international development non-profit based in Geneva, also noted in a report in March 2019 that Christianity remains the world’s largest religion by population. Citing estimates from the World Religion Database, the WEF reported here that 32.8 percent of the world’s population is Christian while 22.5 percent is Muslim.

Below is a screenshot of the WEF’s report, which analyses religious affiliations by country:

Screenshot of the WEF report

The Pew Research Center also found here that Christianity remains the world’s largest religion. The US-based think tank reported that in 2015, 31.2 percent of the world’s population or 2.3 billion worldwide were Christian, while 24.1 percent or 1.8 billion people were Muslim.

Below is a screenshot of Pew’s figures:

Screenshot of the Pew website

Pew, however, noted that while Christianity remains the world’s largest religion, Islam is the world’s fastest growing faith.

Pew’s report reads: “This large natural increase results from both high Muslim fertility and the concentration of the Muslim population in younger age groups, which have lower mortality rates.”

The organisation projected here that Islam will overtake Christianity as the world’s largest religion by population in 2070. Pew stresses, however, that the prediction is based on the continuation of birth rates, death rates and religious affiliation trends, all of which are subject to change in the coming decades.

Below is a screenshot of Pew’s projection:

Screenshot of Pew's projection

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