ByThe Story of Mr. Ikhsan Suryakusumah

Sunday, June 15, 2025 –

A girl is seen reading the Quran. (Photo: Britannica)

The Pew Research Center, a US-based think tank, released the results of their latest study which revealed that Islam grew faster than any other major religious group worldwide from 2010 to 2020.

Quoting Newsweek , Saturday (14/6/2025), Pew Research Center data during that period showed that the number of Muslims globally reached around 2 billion, where the proportion of the world’s population that is Muslim increased from 23.9 percent to 25.6 percent.

At the same time, the share of Christians in the global population fell from 30.6 to 28.8 percent.

The study found that birth rates were the main driver of Muslim population growth, with the number of people converting to Islam nearly equaling the number of people leaving the religion.

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On average, Muslim women had 2.9 children in their lifetime from 2015 to 2020, compared to 2.2 children for non-Muslim women.

Then, the average age of Muslims in 2020 is 24 years old, which is nine years younger than the average age of non-Muslims. This shows that the growth of Muslims in the global population will continue to increase.

After Islam, the largest increase was recorded by those with no religious affiliation, who saw a total increase of 300 million to 1.9 billion, representing 24.2 percent of the global population. This is an increase of 0.9 percent in their share of the global population.

Oxford University Islam expert Professor Faisal Devji highlights the changing numbers as a way for Islam to continue to develop under natural conditions. However, he also touches on the rise in the number of non-religious people.

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“After reading the report, I see that the increase in the Muslim population is largely natural, due to younger populations and higher birth rates in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, not due to changes in religious affiliation,” he said.

“In fact, the real story here seems to be the spectacular rise of the unaffiliated or religiously unaffiliated globally, especially in wealthy countries. At more than 24 percent of the global population, they appear to be indicating a decline in formal religion.”

Islamic law expert at the University of British Columbia, Professor Rumee Ahmed, explains that the increase in the number of Muslims is occurring most rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa, where the population grew by more than 70 per cent from 2010-2020 mainly due to improvements in health outcomes and infant mortality rates.

“About a third of this population is Muslim, and that coupled with steady population growth of 15-20 percent in Muslim-dense areas like South Asia and Southeast Asia accounts for most of the growth in the Muslim population,” he said.

source https://www.inilah.com/studi-pew-research-center-islam-jadi-agama-paling-bertumbuh-di-dunia