EDITORIAL: Muslims younger, Christians older, what are the implications?

24th Feb 2023

The gap between the average ages of Christians and Muslims has, for years, been growing. Over the next four decades, Islam is projected to continue to grow globally and even match the number of Christians.

The latest census in England and Wales confirmed the trend, revealing that the average age of Muslims is 27, 13 years younger than the population median, and far less than 51 years for Christians. The economic implications of an ageing Christian population are immense.

The UK has been struggling to pay for an ageing population and has resorted to delaying the age of retirement and subsequently state pension payments. It was only in 2012 that the government made employer pensions compulsory to make others pay more to share the burden.

Religious congregations have been greying for decades in western countries as young people reject various denominations of Christianity and appear to be far less religious than their elders.

In 2018, the Washington-based Pew Research Center reported that the age gap in religious commitment was also apparent among “developing countries as well as advanced industrial economies, in Muslim-majority nations as well as predominantly Christian states, and in societies that are, overall, highly religious as well as those that are comparatively secular.”

Higher fertility rates are a factor in countries experiencing the fastest population growth in various communities. The decline in the number of Christians in the UK has been surpassed by the increasing number professing to have no religion. An earlier analysis of the 2021 census also showed for the first time that more people under 65 said they were atheists than those who identified as Christians.

Having an increased number of Godless citizens is a major issue for governments. What does it say about people in general and the future course of the world? Perhaps much more can be learned from Muslims and Islam to lead the way.

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Muslims youngest religious group, Christians oldest