Muslim babies ‘to outnumber Christian counterparts by 2035’ as birth rate rises

BABIES born to Muslims will begin to outnumber Christian births by 2035, a new study has found.

The results, published by the Pew Research Centre yesterday, found that followers of the Muslim faith are projected to be the world’s fastestgrowing major religious group in the decades ahead.

Christians were the largest religious group in the world in 2015, making up almost one third of the Earth’s 7.3 billion people. Muslims were second with 1.8 billion, according to the study. While the world’s Christian population has continued to grow in recent years, it has done so more modestly.

And in the period between 2010 and 2015, births to Muslims made up an estimated 31 per cent of all babies born around the world – far exceeding the 24 per cent Muslim share of people of all ages in 2015. This turnaround is in part driven by the fact that Christian populations are facing ageing communities. In Europe, deaths are expected to outnumber births in the years to come.

In Germany alone, for example, there were an estimated 1.4 million more Christian deaths than births between 2010 and 2015.

The world’s Muslim population, on the other hand, has a concentration of young followers and high fertility rates, with a higher number of children born to adherents. By 2060, 27 per cent of the global Muslim population is projected to be living in sub-Saharan Africa, up from 16 per cent in 2015. The share of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa is expected to hold steady at 20 per cent.

Religiously unaffiliated people currently make up 16 per cent of the global population.