Islam to become world's largest faith by 2070: research report

NEW YORK: Islam will become the world’s largest religion in the next 60 years by overtaking Christianity, a research report said.

Islam is the only faith growing faster than the global population with more than a third of the world’s people predicted to be Muslims by the end of the century, US-based Pew Research Centre said in a report.

Christianity is currently by far the world’s largest faith, with 2.2 billion people, accounting for 31 per cent of all 6.9 billion people on Earth in 2010.

There were an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims at the same date. If the current rate of demographic trends continue Muslims will outnumber Christians by about 2070, the report said.

Islam predicted to account for 34.9 percent of the world’s population by 2100 and Christianity for 33.8 percent.

Muslims have the youngest median age (30) of all religious groups, so as they are the fastest-growing group of the world population. By 2050, India will be the country with the world’s largest Muslim population with more than 300 million Muslims, said the American think tank.

A majority of the Muslims ( 62 %) globally live in the Asia-Pacific region. This included large populations in Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey, Pew said. Indonesia is currently the country with the world’s largest Muslim population.

“The Muslim population in Europe is also growing, which projected to be 10% of all Europeansby 2050,” the report said.