Islam Is The Fastest Growing Relgion, 2025 Pew Study Shows

Between 2010 and 2020, the global number of Muslims climbed by approximately 347 million, reaching nearly 2 billion, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.

In that same period, Christians grew by 122 million, but their share of the world’s population slipped from 30.6 percent to 28.8 percent as overall growth outpaced their gains.

The next largest increase occurred among the religiously unaffiliated, whose ranks swelled by 300 million to about 1.9 billion, representing 24.2 percent of humanity. Of all major faiths, only Buddhism saw a net decline—dropping 19 million adherents to 324 million.

Pew attributes Islam’s surge almost entirely to natural demographic trends. Muslim communities have a younger median age—just 24 years in 2020, nine years below non‑Muslims—and higher fertility rates, with Muslim women averaging 2.9 children each from 2015 to 2020 versus 2.2 for non‑Muslim women. Conversions had almost no net effect, as departures and entries balanced out.

Regionally, the Asia‑Pacific hosted the largest Muslim population at 1.2 billion, followed by the Middle East‑North Africa with 414 million, and sub‑Saharan Africa at 369 million.

Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh remained the countries with the greatest Muslim populations, and Islam was the majority faith in 53 countries or territories.

Professor Faisal Devji of the University of Oxford, speaking to Newsweek, noted that while Islam’s rise reflects basic demographic patterns, the rapid expansion of the non‑religious in wealthier regions underscores a broader decline in formal religious affiliation.

“The real story,” he said, “is the resilience of Islam alongside the spectacular rise of the unaffiliated.”

The Pew study drew on more than 2,700 data sources—censuses, surveys, and population registers—across 201 countries and territories, covering nearly the entire global population.

Given these underlying trends, Islam’s proportion of the world’s faith community is projected to climb further in the decades ahead.

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