8 Encouraging Trends in Global Christianity for 2024 - Lifeway Research

According to the latest research from the well-respected Pew Research Center, by 2060 Christianity will have grown to 32% of the world’s population, Islam to 31%,2 and the number of people identifying as atheists or agnostics will have declined to 12.5%.

There are more Christians on earth right now than ever before. Paul was right: “This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours.”9

globally atheism is in slow, possibly terminal, decline. Rather, it is religious world views like Christianity and Islam, which between them account for almost two thirds of the world’s population, that will shape the lives of individuals and societies in the twenty-first century.

Tens of millions of people may be leaving the church, and more than eighty-six churches may be closing every week, but if we have eyes to see it, there is actually much reason to hope.

By 2022, the picture changed significantly. A majority still identified as Christian (68%), but that meant one-third of the population did not claim that label. While the Jewish population held mostly steady (2%), the number claiming another faith grew (8%) and those claiming no religion skyrocketed (21%). If those trends continue, the U.S. could i

If Christianity today is the religion growing most rapidly and most widely throughout the world, it is also – not coincidentally – the most persecuted religion in the world.