At Tri-Faith Initiative, we envision a world in which differences are honored, similarities are built upon, and everyone belongs. Part of honoring those differences is to realize how the sizes of religious groups are changing over time. In my recent Fed-U-cation presentation called “Common-Sense Society: An Interfaith Historical Perspective,” I discuss that perhaps a laudable goal within our society is not so much the “melting pot” as the “garden,” which gains its beauty and strength from its wide variety being gathered all together in a single garden.
As changes happen to our worldwide religious “garden, Tri-Faith Initiative is here to adapt and help serve all. One of the ways that Tri-Faith Initiative can advance interfaith understanding is by having an understanding of what are the various religious groups in the world. Recently, the Pew Research Center has updated their worldwide population numbers for religious groups (“How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020”). I highly recommend looking over the article for yourself as well, but I wanted to share some of the highlights below. Please note that all of the following images are from the article and contain their sources and original labels. While Christianity is still the largest religion (population-wise) in the world, it did not grow as fast as the growth of the world’s population:
Muslims were the fastest-growing religious group in the world over the past decade. Meanwhile the actual number of Buddhists in the world is the only population that actually shrunk smaller than its numbers a decade ago (meaning it shrunk even despite the world’s population increasing):
Hindus, Jews, and all other religions grew steadily at the same rate of growth as that of the world’s population. People with no religious affiliation are the only group besides Muslims that grew faster than the growth of the world’s population. This corresponds with a population trend we see here within the religious population of the USA: while Christianity is the largest percentage of the US population, the quickest growing group are people with no religious affiliation:
So, to recap: Jews, Hindus, and most religious groups make up the same percentage of the world’s population as they did a decade ago. Their numbers grew at the same rate as the world’s population overall.The two groups that grew at a faster rate than the world’s population are Muslims and the religiously unaffiliated. Islam is the second-largest religion in the world.Christians are a group that grew at a slower rate than the world’s population. While Christianity is the largest religion in the world, it is a smaller percentage of the world’s population than a decade ago.Finally, Buddhism is the only group in which the not only the percentage shrank but the actual number of Buddhists in the world is smaller than a decade ago.
The trends of growth for Christianity and Islam as the two largest religions that may switch places in size in the future is a trend I have seen for a while. Also not surprising is how most other religions–including Judaism—remain steady with the world’s population growth: they grow in numbers no faster or slower than the world’s population growth. I am surprised that the worldwide Buddhist population shrank—that not only the percentage but the actual number of Buddhists in the world has become smaller over the past decade. As someone who has not only friends but even family who are Buddhist or come from countries with rich Buddhist heritages, I feel a bit saddened to hear this news, as I am to see the shrinking of any religious group and its distinctiveness in our world. The other trend that I notice the most here is that while we have seen more people in the USA disaffiliating with religion, this now looks to be a trend being reflected in the global population as well.Whether you are part of steadily growing groups like Jews and Hindus, shrinking groups like Buddhists, or more rapidly growing groups like Christians, Muslims, and even the religiously unaffiliated, Tri-Faith Initiative is here to cultivate inclusive environments where everyone belongs. However the garden of our society changes over time, Tri-Faith Initiative is here to tend to that garden.
by Dr. Lucas Schulte
