Christian population growth

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Christian population growth is the population growth of the global Christian community. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were more than 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, more than three times as many as the 600 million recorded in 1910. However, this rate of growth is slower than the overall population growth over the same time period. [1] In 2020, Pew estimated the number of Christians worldwide to be around 2.38 billion. [2] According to various scholars and sources, high birth rates and conversions in the Global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growth. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] In 2023, it was reported: "There will be over 2.38 billion Christians worldwide by the middle of 2023 and around 2.9 billion by 2050, according to a report published by the Pew research centre.

Contents

Summary

Demographics of major traditions within Christianity (Pew Research Center, 2010 data) [9]
TraditionFollowers% of the Christian population% of the world populationFollower dynamicsDynamics in- and outside Christianity
Catholicism 1,094,610,00050.115.9Increase2.svg GrowingSteady2.svg Stable
Protestantism 800,640,00036.711.6Increase2.svg GrowingIncrease2.svg Growing
Orthodoxy 260,380,00011.93.8Decrease2.svg ShrinkingDecrease2.svg Shrinking
Other denominations28,430,0001.30.4Increase2.svg GrowingIncrease2.svg Growing
Christianity 2,184,060,00010031.7Steady2.svg StableSteady2.svg Stable

World Christianity by tradition in 2024 as per World Christian Database [10]

   Catholic (48.6%)
   Protestant (39.8%)
  Orthodox (11.1%)
  Other (0.5%)
Regional median ages of Christians compared with overall median ages (Pew Research Center, 2010 data) [11]
Christian median age in region (years)Regional median age (years)
World30
Sub-Saharan Africa 1918
Latin America-Caribbean 2727
Asia-Pacific 2829
Middle East-North Africa 2924
North America 3937
Europe 4240

The Christian fertility rate is 2.7 children per woman, which is higher than the global average fertility rate of 2.5. Globally, Christians were only slightly older (median age of 30) than the global average median age of 28 in 2010. According to Pew Research religious switching is projected to have a modest impact on changes in the Christian population. [12] According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world; [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] this growth is primarily due to religious conversion to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. [18] [19]

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia , approximately 2.7 million converting to Christianity from another religion, World Christian Encyclopedia also cited that Christianity rank at first place in net gains through religious conversion. [20] While according to "The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion", approximately 15.5 million converting to Christianity from another religion, while approximately 11.7 million leave Christianity, and most of them become irreligious, resulting in a net gain of 3.8 million. [21] Christianity earns about 65.1 million people due to factors such as birth rate and religious conversion while losing 27.4 million people due to factors such as death rate and religious apostasy. Most of the net growth in the numbers of Christians are in Africa, Latin America and Asia. [21]

Fertility rate

The Christian fertility rate has varied throughout history. The Christian fertility rate also varies from country to country. In the 20-year period from 1989 to 2009, the average world fertility rate decreased from 3.50 to 2.58, a fall of 0.92 children per woman, or 26%. The weighted average fertility rate for Christian nations decreased in the same period from 3.26 to 2.58, a fall of 0.68 children per woman, or 21%. The weighted average fertility rate for Muslim nations decreased in the same period from 5.17 to 3.23, a fall of 1.94 children per woman, or 38%. While Muslims have an average of 3.1 children per woman—the highest rate of all religious groups—Christians are[ when? ] second, with 2.7 children per woman. [22]

The gap in fertility between the Christian- and Muslim-dominated nations fell from 67% in 1990 to 17% in 2010. According to a study published by the Pew Research Center in 2017, births to Muslims between the years of 2010 and 2015 made up an estimated 31% of all babies born around the world. By the Pew Research Center's estimates, the Muslim fertility rate and Christian fertility rate will converge by 2040. [23]

CountryFertility rate
(2019)
(births/woman) [24] 		Percent Christian
Flag of Ecuador.svg  Ecuador 2.4094%
Flag of East Timor.svg  East Timor 3.9499%
Flag of Armenia.svg  Armenia 1.7698.6%
Flag of Equatorial Guinea.svg  Equatorial Guinea 4.4392%
Flag of Moldova.svg  Moldova 1.2795.3%
Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela 2.2588.0%
Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 1.3590%

Conversion

By branches

Catholic Church

Eastern Orthodoxy

Protestantism

By continent

Projected growth of Christianity by 2050
Some of the projections are as follows: [103]
  1. Over the 2010-2050 period, Christians will remain the largest religious group with 30.7% of the world's population. However, Islam will grow faster and become 29.7% of the world's population. Therefore, by 2050 there will be 2.8 billion Muslims compared to 2.9 billion Christians.
  2. "In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050".
  3. "Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa".
Reasons given for the projected growth
Some of the reasons the Study gives are as follows: [102]
  1. The change in the world's religious is "driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world's major religions, as well as by people switching faiths".
  2. Fertility rates. "Religions with many adherents in developing countries, where birth rates are high, and infant mortality rates generally have been falling, are likely to grow quickly." Therefore, much of the growth of Christianity is projected to take place in sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, Christians have a birth rate of 2.7 children per woman. But Muslims have a higher rate, namely, an average of 3.1 children per woman. This differential is one of the reasons that the Muslim population is growing faster than the Christian.
  3. Size of youth population. "In 2010, more than a quarter of the world's total population (27%) was under the age of 15." Christian youth under 15 were the same as the 27% global average. But an even higher percentage of Muslims (34%) were younger than 15. This higher youth population is one of the reasons that from 2010 to 2050 Muslims are projected to grow faster than Christians.
  4. Size of old population. In 2010, "11% of the world's population was at least 60 years old", 14% of the Christian population was over 60 years old, but only 7% of Muslims were over 60. This is another reason that Muslims are projected to grow faster than Christians.
  5. Switching. A loss of 66 million Christians is projected to come through switching. Most of the loss is projected to come from Christians "joining the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated".
The whole Pew Research Center can be read by clicking The Future of World Religions.

Africa

Algeria

  • Since 1960 a growing number of Algerian Muslims are converting to Christianity. [106] [107] [108] [109] [110]
  • Converts to Christianity may be investigated and searched by the authorities. [111] Conversions to Christianity have been most common in Kabylie, especially in the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou. [112]
  • A 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Algeria. [51]

Benin

  • A 2015 study estimates 40,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Benin. [51]

Burkina Faso

  • A 2015 study estimates 200,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Burkina Faso. [51]

Burundi

  • A 2015 study estimates 2,200 Muslims converted to Christianity in Burundi. [51]

Cameroon

  • A 2015 study estimates 90,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Cameroon. [51]

Central African Republic

Egypt

  • A 2015 study estimates some 14,000 Muslims who converted to Christianity in Egypt. [113]

Ethiopia

  • A 2015 study estimates 400,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Ethiopia most belonging to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. [51]

Libya

  • A 2015 study estimated some 1,500 believers in Christ from a Muslim background living in the country. [113]

Morocco

  • Since 1960 a growing number of Moroccan Muslims are converting to Christianity. [114] [115] [116] [117] [118]
  • On 27 March 2010, the Moroccan magazine TelQuel stated that thousands of Moroccans had converted to Christianity. Pointing out the absence of official data, Service de presse Common Ground cites unspecified sources that stated that about 5,000 Moroccans became Christians between 2005 and 2010. [119] According to the International Religious Freedom Report for 2014 estimate that there may be as many as 8,000 Christian citizens throughout the country, but many reportedly do not meet regularly due to fear of government surveillance and social persecution. [120]
  • According to different estimates, there are about 25,000-45,000 Moroccan Christians of Berber or Arab descent mostly converted from Islam. [121] Other sources give a number of a bit more than 1,000. [122] A popular Christian program by Brother Rachid has led many former Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East to convert to Christianity. His programs have been credited with assisting in the conversion of over 150,000 former Muslims to Christianity in Morocco. [123]

Nigeria

  • The percentage of Christians in Nigeria grew from 21.4% in 1953 to 48.2% in 2011. [38]
  • ِA 2015 study estimates some 600,000 believers in Christ are from a Muslim background living in Nigeria. [113]

South Africa

Tunisia

  • International Religious Freedom Report for 2007 estimate thousands of Tunisian Muslims who convert to Christianity. [125]

Americas

Argentina

  • A 2015 study estimates some 2,200 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism. [113] [126]
  • Data from 2013, show that 64,000 Argentine Jews identify themselves as Christians. [127]

Canada

  • According to 1991/2001/2011-Census, the number of Christians in Canada has decreased from 22.5 million to 22.1 million.
  • A 2015 study estimates some 43,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in Canada, most of whom belong to the evangelical tradition. [113]

Mexico

United States

The United States government does not collect religious data in its census. The survey below, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008, was a random digit-dialed telephone survey of 54,461 American residential households in the contiguous United States. The 1990 sample size was 113,723; 2001 sample size was 50,281.

Adult respondents were asked the open-ended question, "What is your religion, if any?" Interviewers did not prompt or offer a suggested list of potential answers. The religion of the spouse or partner was also asked. If the initial answer was "Protestant" or "Christian" further questions were asked to probe which particular denomination. About one-third of the sample was asked more detailed demographic questions.

Among the Asian population in the United States, conversion into Christianity is significantly increasing among Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. [128] By 2012 the percentage of Christians in these communities was 71%, 31%, and 38% respectively. [37]

Data from the Pew Research Center states that, as of 2013, about 1.6 million adult American Jews identify themselves as Christians, most as Protestants. [129] [130] [131] According to the same data, most of the Jews who identify themselves as some sort of Christian (1.6 million) were raised as Jewish or are Jews by ancestry. [130] According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 19% of those who say they were raised Jewish in the United States, consider themselves Christian. [132]

According to Pew Research, Christianity loses more people than it gains from religious conversion. It found that 23% of Americans raised as Christians no longer identified with Christianity, whereas 6% of current Christians converted. [133] This was in contrast to Islam in America, where the number of people who leave the religion is[ when? ] roughly equal to the number who convert to it. [133] The National Catholic Register claims that in 2015 there were 450,000 American Muslim converts to Christianity and that 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually in the United States. [134] According to scholar Rob Scott of University of Tasmania in 2010 there were "approximately 180,000 Arab Americans and about 130,000 Iranian Americans who converted from Islam to Christianity". [135]

Religious Self-Identification of the U.S. Adult Population: 1990, 2001, 2008 [136]
Figures are not adjusted for refusals to reply; investigators suspect refusals are possibly more representative of "no religion" than any other group.

Source:ARIS 2008 [136]
Group
1990
adults
x 1,000
2001
adults
x 1,000
2008
adults
x 1,000

Numerical
Change
1990–
2008
as %
of 1990
1990
% of
adults
2001
% of
adults
2008
% of
adults
change
in % of
total
adults
1990–
2008
Adult population, total175,440207,983228,18230.1%
Adult population, Responded171,409196,683216,36726.2%97.7%94.6%94.8%−2.9%
Total Christian151,225159,514173,40214.7%86.2%76.7%76.0%−10.2%
Catholic46,00450,87357,19924.3%26.2%24.5%25.1%−1.2%
non-Catholic Christian105,221108,641116,20310.4%60.0%52.2%50.9%−9.0%
Baptist33,96433,82036,1486.4%19.4%16.3%15.8%−3.5%
Mainline Christian32,78435,78829,375−10.4%18.7%17.2%12.9%−5.8%
Methodist14,17414,03911,366−19.8%8.1%6.8%5.0%−3.1%
Lutheran9,1109,5808,674−4.8%5.2%4.6%3.8%−1.4%
Presbyterian4,9855,5964,723−5.3%2.8%2.7%2.1%−0.8%
Episcopalian/Anglican3,0433,4512,405−21.0%1.7%1.7%1.1%−0.7%
United Church of Christ4381,37873668.0%0.2%0.7%0.3%0.1%
Christian Generic25,98022,54632,44124.9%14.8%10.8%14.2%−0.6%
Christian Unspecified8,07314,19016,384102.9%4.6%6.8%7.2%2.6%
Non-denominational Christian1942,4898,0324040.2%0.1%1.2%3.5%3.4%
Protestant – Unspecified17,2144,6475,187−69.9%9.8%2.2%2.3%−7.5%
Evangelical/Born Again5461,0882,154294.5%0.3%0.5%0.9%0.6%
Pentecostal/Charismatic5,6477,8317,94840.7%3.2%3.8%3.5%0.3%
Pentecostal – Unspecified3,1164,4075,41673.8%1.8%2.1%2.4%0.6%
Assemblies of God6171,10581031.3%0.4%0.5%0.4%0.0%
Church of God59094366312.4%0.3%0.5%0.3%0.0%
Other Protestant Denominations4,6305,9497,13154.0%2.6%2.9%3.1%0.5%
Churches of Christ1,7692,5931,9218.6%1.0%1.2%0.8%−0.2%
Seventh-Day Adventist66872493840.4%0.4%0.3%0.4%0.0%
Jehovah's Witnesses1,3811,3311,91438.6%0.8%0.6%0.8%0.1%
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints2,4872,6973,15827.0%1.4%1.3%1.4%0.0%
Total non-Christian religions5,8537,7408,79650.3%3.3%3.7%3.9%0.5%
Jewish3,1372,8372,680−14.6%1.8%1.4%1.2%−0.6%
Eastern Religions6872,0201,961185.4%0.4%1.0%0.9%0.5%
Buddhist4041,0821,189194.3%0.2%0.5%0.5%0.3%
Muslim5271,1041,349156.0%0.3%0.5%0.6%0.3%
New Religious Movements & Others1,2961,7702,804116.4%0.7%0.9%1.2%0.5%
None/ No religion, total14,33129,48134,169138.4%8.2%14.2%15.0%6.8%
Agnostic+Atheist1,1861,8933,606204.0%0.7%0.9%1.6%0.9%
Did Not Know/ Refused to reply4,03111,30011,815193.1%2.3%5.4%5.2%2.9%

Highlights: [136]

  1. The ARIS 2008 survey was carried out from February–November 2008 and collected answers from 54,461 respondents who were questioned in English or Spanish.
  2. The American population self-identifies as predominantly Christian but Americans are slowly becoming less Christian.
    • 86% of American adults identified as Christians in 1990 and 76% in 2008.
    • The historic Mainline churches and denominations have experienced the steepest declines while the non-denominational Christian identity has been trending upward particularly since 2001.
    • The challenge to Christianity in the United States does not come from other religions but rather from a rejection of all forms of organized religion.
  3. 34% of American adults considered themselves "Born Again or Evangelical Christians" in 2008.
  4. The U.S. population continues to show signs of becoming less religious, with one out of every seven Americans failing to indicate a religious identity in 2008.
    • The "Nones" (no stated religious preference, atheist, or agnostic) continue to grow, though at a much slower pace than in the 1990s, from 8.2% in 1990 to 14.1% in 2001, to 15.0% in 2008.
    • Asian Americans are substantially more likely to indicate no religious identity than other racial or ethnic groups.
  5. One sign of the lack of attachment of Americans to religion is that 27% do not expect a religious funeral at their death.
  6. Based on their stated beliefs rather than their religious identification in 2008, 70% of Americans believe in a personal God, roughly 12% of Americans are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unknowable or unsure), and another 12% are deistic (a higher power but no personal God).
  7. America's religious geography has been transformed since 1990. Religious switching along with Hispanic immigration has significantly changed the religious profile of some states and regions. Between 1990 and 2008, the Catholic population proportion of the New England states fell from 50% to 36% and in New York it fell from 44% to 37%, while it rose in California from 29% to 37% and in Texas from 23% to 32%.
  8. Overall the 1990–2008 ARIS time series shows that changes in religious self-identification in the first decade of the 21st century have been moderate in comparison to the 1990s, which was a period of significant shifts in the religious composition of the United States

Asia

Afghanistan

Azerbaijan

Bangladesh

  • According to scholars Khalil Bilici, during the Bangladesh Liberation War (March–December 1971), a significant number of Bangladeshis left Islam to join Christianity (because missionaries stood with them during their difficult times during the civil strife) or to atheism after 1971 due to their experience of oppression conducted by fellow Muslims from West Pakistan. [144]
  • A 2015 study estimates some 130,000 Christians from a Muslim background residing in the Bangladesh, though not all are necessarily citizens. [113]
  • The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated the numbers of the Muslim who convert to Christianity in Bangladesh has risen from two hundred thousand to four hundred thousand between 1971 and 1991. [145]
  • The Home Office estimated that up to 91,000 Muslims have converted to Christianity in Bangladesh from 2012 to 2018. [146]

China

  • In recent years[ when? ], the number of Chinese Christians has increased significantly,[ weasel words ] particularly since the easing of restrictions on religious activity during economic reforms in the late 1970s; Christians were 4 million before 1949 (including Catholics and Protestants), and reaching 67 million (unofficial figure) in 2010. [1] [39] Various statistical analyses have found that between 2% and 4% of the Chinese identify as Christian.
  • The government declared in 2018 that there are over 44 million Christians (Protestant: 38M, Catholic: 6M) in China. [147]
  • According to a study by a scholar Fenggang Yang from Purdue University, Christianity is "spreading among the Chinese of South-East Asia", and "Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity is growing more quickly in China", [148] also according to him, more than half of them have university degrees. [148]
  • According to the Council on Foreign Relations the "number of Chinese Protestants has grown by an average of 10 percent annually since 1979" as of 2018. [149]

India

  • Christianity is the third largest religion in India after Hinduism and Islam, with approximately 30 million followers.[ when? ][ citation needed ]
  • A 2015 study estimates some 40,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism or Catholicism. [113]
  • While the exact number of Dalit converts to Christianity in India is not available, scholar William R. Burrow of Colorado State University estimated that about 8% of Dalit have converted to Christianity. [150]
  • According to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, Christianity in India gained an increase from conversion, most of the Christian converts in India are former Hindus. [151]

Indonesia

  • According to various sources, between 1965 and 1985 about 2.5 million Indonesian converted from Islam to Christianity. [54] [55] [56] [152]
  • The "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census" found that between 1960 and 2015 about 6.5 million Indonesian Muslims convert to Christianity. [51]
  • Some reports also show that many of the Chinese Indonesians minority convert to Christianity. [153] [154] Demographer Aris Ananta reported in 2008 that "anecdotal evidence suggests that more Buddhist Chinese have become Christians as they increased their standards of education". [155]

Iran

  • Significant numbers of Muslims convert to Christianity in Iran, estimates range from 300,000 to 500,000 by various sources. [156] [157] [158] [159] [160] Other estimates put the numbers between 800,000 and 3 million. [161]
  • According to scholar Ladan Boroumand "Iran [as of 2020 was] witnessing the highest rate of Christianization in the world", [162] and according to scholar Shay Khatiri of Johns Hopkins University "Islam is the fastest shrinking religion in there [Iran], while Christianity is growing the fastest", [163] and in 2018 "up to half a million Iranians are Christian converts from Muslim families, and most of these Christians are evangelicals", [164] and he adds "recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between 1 million and 3 million". [165]
  • Christianity is reportedly the fastest growing religion in Iran with an average annual rate of 5.2%. [166] A 2015 study estimates between 100,000 and 500,000 believers Christians from a Muslim background living in Iran, most of them evangelical Christians. [113]

Israel

  • Several thousand Israelis practice Messianic Jewish denominations, which are often considered as Christian sects. The Messianic Jews usually combine Jewish and Christian practices but do recognize Jesus as the Messiah. There are no exact numbers on those communities, but it is believed that several hundred to several thousand ethnic Jews belong to this tradition as well as several thousand Israelis of mixed ancestry (mostly mixed Jewish and Slavic).

Japan

  • Christianity is one of several minority religions in Japan, accounting for about not more than 1 percent of the population. [167] [168] [169]
  • According to a poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in 2006, Christianity has increased significantly in Japan, particularly among youth, and a high number of teens are becoming Christians. [46] [170] [171]

Jordan

  • A 2015 study estimates some 6,500 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Eastern Orthodoxy. [113]

Kazakhstan

  • In spite of the persecution of converts from Islam to Christianity, a 2015 study estimates some 50,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background residing in the country. [113] [172]

Kuwait

  • There are a number of believers in Christ from a Muslim background in the country, though many are not citizens. A 2015 study estimates that around 350 people in the country follow these beliefs. [113]

Kyrgyzstan

  • A 2015 study estimates some 19,000 Christians from a Muslim background residing in the country, though not all are necessarily citizens of Kyrgyzstan. [113]
  • Exact numbers of Muslim Kyrgyz converts to Christianity vary but an estimate of around 20,000 is generally accepted among scholars [173] [174]

Malaysia

  • There is no well researched agreement on the actual number of Malaysian Muslim converts to Christianity in Malaysia. [175] But according to Tan Sri Dr Harussani Zakaria, they are 260,000. [175] [176]

Mongolia

Oman

  • A 2015 study estimates a mere 200 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in the country, and not all of those are necessarily citizens. [113]

Saudi Arabia

A 2015 study estimates 60,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Saudi Arabia. [51]

Singapore

  • The percentage of Christians among Singaporeans increased from 12.7% in 1990 to 17.5% in 2010. [177]
  • According to scholar Michael Nai-Chiu Poon of University of Toronto conversion to Christianity was increasing among Chinese Singaporeans as of 2010. [178]
  • It's been reported also that increasing numbers[ weasel words ] of young people or educated people are becoming[ when? ] Christians in Singapore. [47] [48] [49]

South Korea

  • In South Korea, Christianity has grown from 20.7% in 1985 to 29.5% in 2005 according to the World Christian Database. [124] [179]

Syria

Tajikistan

  • In spite of opposition in relation to conversion from Islam to Christianity, a 2015 study estimates some 2,600 to 3,000 Christians with Muslim backgrounds reside in the country. [113] [183]

Turkey

Uzbekistan

  • A 2015 study estimates some 10,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in the country, [194] most of them belonging to some sort of evangelical or charismatic Protestant community. [51]

Vietnam

Europe

Albania

  • Since 1960 a growing number of Albanian Muslims are converting to Christianity. [196] [197] [198] [199] [200] [201]
  • A 2015 study estimated some 13,000 followers of Christ from a Muslim background, though it is not clear to which Christian churches these people had converted. [113]
  • Converting to Christianity is growing among Muslims in the Albanian diaspora. [197] [198]

Belgium

  • Reports estimated that "many" Muslims convert every year to Christianity in Belgium. [202]

Bulgaria

  • Reports estimated that thousands of Muslims (mostly Bulgarian Turks) convert every year to Christianity in Bulgaria. [203] [204] [205] A 2015 study estimates 45,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism. [113]

Denmark

  • There are around 8,000 Christians who have converted from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism. [113] [206] [207]

France

  • Protestants have increased as a percentage of total population from 1% in 1987 to 3% in 2009. [208]
  • Reports form Le Monde estimated that 15,000 Muslims convert every year to Christianity. [209]
  • Some scholars and media reports indicate that there been increasing numbers of conversions to Christianity among the Maghrebis in France. [210] [211]

Georgia

Germany

Kosovo

  • Reports estimated that hundreds of Muslims convert every year to Christianity in Kosovo. [217] [218] [219]

Norway

Netherlands

Russia

  • According to Roman Silantyev the executive secretary of the Inter-religious Council in Russia, about 2 million Muslims in Russia have converted to Christianity between during the last fifteen years while only 2,500 Russians converted to Islam. [223]
  • According to a 2012 study, 17% of Jews in Russia identify themselves as Christians. [224] [225]

Spain

  • Between 1998 and 2018, Protestantism grew from 0.24% to 1.96% of the Spanish population. [93] [94]

Sweden

  • In recent years[ when? ] a number of Swedish Muslims have converted from Islam to the Church of Sweden, most noticeably by Iranians, but also by Arabs and Pakistanis. [226] [227] [228]

United Kingdom

  • A 2015 study estimated some 25,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background, most of whom belong to an evangelical or Pentecostal community. [113]
  • In recent years[ when? ] a number of Muslims have converted to Christianity in the United Kingdom. [229] [230]

Oceania

Australia

  • A 2015 study estimates some 20,000 Muslim converted to Christianity in Australia, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism. [113]

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protestantism by country</span>

There are approximately 833,457,000 Protestants worldwide, among approximately 2.5 billion Christians. In 2010, a total of more than 800 million included 300 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 260 million in the Americas, 140 million in Asia-Pacific region, 100 million in Europe and 2 million in Middle East-North Africa. Protestants account for nearly forty percent of Christians worldwide and more than one tenth of the total human population. Various estimates put the percentage of Protestants in relation to the total number of the world's Christians at 33%, 36%, 36.7%, and 40%, while in relation to the world's population at 11.6% and 13%.

Conversion to Islam is adopting Islam as a religion or faith. People who have converted to the religion often refer to themselves as "reverts." Conversion requires a formal statement of the shahādah, the credo of Islam, whereby the prospective convert must state that "there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." Proselytism of the faith is referred to as "dawah," and missionary efforts have been promoted since the dawn of the religion in the 7th century. Statistics relating to the amount of converts to Islam are scarce and often unreliable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Egypt</span>

Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. The state religion of Egypt is Islam, although estimates vary greatly in the absence of official statistics. Since the 2006 census, religion has been excluded, and thus available statistics are estimates made by religious and non-governmental agencies. The country is majority Sunni Muslim, with the next largest religious group being Coptic Orthodox Christians. The exact numbers are subject to controversy, with Christians alleging that they have been systemically under-counted in existing censuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Europe</span>

Religion has been a major influence on the societies, cultures, traditions, philosophies, artistic expressions and laws within present-day Europe. The largest religion in Europe is Christianity. However, irreligion and practical secularisation are also prominent in some countries. In Southeastern Europe, three countries have Muslim majorities, with Christianity being the second-largest religion in those countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim population growth</span> Analysis of Muslim Growth rate & causes

Between 2015 and 2060, Muslim population is projected to increase by 70%, from 1.76 billion to 3 billion. This compares with the 32% growth of world population during the same period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conversion to Christianity</span> Conversion of a previously non-Christian person to Christianity

Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person that brings about changes in what sociologists refer to as the convert's "root reality" including their social behaviors, thinking and ethics. The sociology of religion indicates religious conversion was an important factor in the emergence of civilization and the making of the modern world. Conversion is the most studied aspect of religion by psychologists of religion, but there is still very little actual data available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Africa</span>

Christianity arrived in Africa in the 1st century AD; as of 2024, a majority of Africans are Christians. Several African Christians influenced the early development of Christianity and shaped its doctrines, including Tertullian, Perpetua, Felicity, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Cyprian, Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo. In the 4th century, the Aksumite empire in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea became one of the first regions in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion, followed by the Nubian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia and several Christian Berber kingdoms.

Growth of religion involves the spread of individual religions and the increase in the numbers of religious adherents around the world. In sociology, desecularization is the proliferation or growth of religion, most commonly after a period of previous secularization. Statistics commonly measure the absolute number of adherents, the percentage of the absolute growth per-year, and the growth of converts in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Indonesia</span>

Christianity is Indonesia's second-largest religion, after Islam. Indonesia also has the second-largest Christian population in Southeast Asia after the Philippines, the largest Protestant population in Southeast Asia, and the third-largest Christian population in Asia after the Philippines and China. Indonesia also has the second-largest Christian population in the Muslim world, after Nigeria, followed by Egypt. Indonesia's 29.4 million Christians constituted 10.47% of the country's population in 2023, with 7.41% Protestant and 3.06% Catholic. Some provinces in Indonesia are majority Christian. In Indonesia, the word Kristen refers to Protestantism, while Catholicism is referred to as Katolik. In the 21st century the rate of growth and spread of Christianity has increased, especially among the Chinese minority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Eritrea</span>

Religion in Eritrea consists of a number of faiths. The two major religions in Eritrea are Christianity and Islam. However, the number of adherents of each faith is subject to debate. Estimates of the Christian share of the population range from 47% and 63%, while estimates of the Muslim share of the population range from 37% to 52%.

Religion in Latin America is characterized by the historical predominance of Catholicism, and growing number and influence of a large number of groups that belong to Protestantism, as well as by the presence of Irreligion. According to Latinobarómetro in 2024, 54% of the population is Catholic, 19% is evangelical and 19% is not religiously affiliated.

The main religion in Morocco is Sunni Islam, which is also the state religion of the country. Officially, 99% of the population are Muslim, and virtually all of those are Sunni. The second-largest religion in the country is Christianity, but most Christians in Morocco are foreigners. There is a community of the Baháʼí Faith. Only a fraction of the former number of Maghrebi Jews have remained in the country, many having moved to Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam by country</span> Population of Muslims by country

Adherents of Islam constitute the world's second largest and fastest growing major religious grouping, maintaining suggested 2017 projections in 2022. As of 2020, Pew Research Centre (PEW) projections suggest there are a total of 1.9 billion adherents worldwide. Further studies indicate the worldwide spread and percentage growth of Islam, may be attributed to high birth rates followed by a trend of worldwide adoption and conversion to Islam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spread of Islam</span>

The spread of Islam spans almost 1,400 years. The early Muslim conquests that occurred following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE led to the creation of the caliphates, expanding over a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces expanding over vast territories and building imperial structures over time. Most of the significant expansion occurred during the reign of the rāshidūn ("rightly-guided") caliphs from 632 to 661 CE, which were the first four successors of Muhammad. These early caliphates, coupled with Muslim economics and trading, the Islamic Golden Age, and the age of the Islamic gunpowder empires, resulted in Islam's spread outwards from Mecca towards the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans and the creation of the Muslim world. The Islamic conquests, which culminated in the Arab empire being established across three continents, enriched the Muslim world, achieving the economic preconditions for the emergence of this institution owing to the emphasis attached to Islamic teachings. Trade played an important role in the spread of Islam in some parts of the world, such as Indonesia. During the early centuries of Islamic rule, conversions in the Middle East were mainly individual or small-scale. While mass conversions were favored for spreading Islam beyond Muslim lands, policies within Muslim territories typically aimed for individual conversions to weaken non-Muslim communities. However, there were exceptions, like the forced mass conversion of the Samaritans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decline of Christianity in the Western world</span> Decline Christian affiliation within Western society

A decline of Christian affiliation in the Western world has been observed in the decades since the end of World War II. While most countries in the Western world were historically almost exclusively Christian, the post-World War II era has seen developed countries with modern, secular educational facilities shifting towards post-Christian, secular, globalized, multicultural and multifaith societies.

References

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  2. ↑ "Religion Information Data Explorer | GRF". www.globalreligiousfutures.org. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  3. ↑ "The List: The World's Fastest-Growing Religions". Foreign Policy . 14 May 2007. Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2020. Behind the trend: High birthrates and conversions in the global South.
  4. ↑ W. Kling, David (2020). A History of Christian Conversion. Oxford University Press. pp. 586–587. ISBN   9780195320923.
  5. ↑ R. Ross, Kenneth (2017). Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity. Edinburgh University Press. p. 17. ISBN   9781474412049.
  6. ↑ Woodhea, Linda (2004). An Introduction to Christianity. Cambridge University Press. p. 386. ISBN   9780521786553. Growth is related not only to conversion but also to a high rate of population growth.
  7. ↑ Tomalin, Emma (2013). Religions and Development. Routledge. p. 6. ISBN   9781136827488.
  8. ↑ R.V, Dmitriev (2018). African Studies in Russia: Works of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yearbook 2014-2016. MeaBooks Inc. p. 60. ISBN   9781988391069. Consequently, conversion influences the growth of the Christian community to a far greater degree than the Muslim one, delivering nearly 29% of the Christian population's annual growth.
  9. ↑ "Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population". 19 December 2011.
  10. ↑ "Status of Global Christianity, 2024, in the Context of 1900–2050" (PDF). Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Retrieved 23 May 2024. Christian total 2,631,941,000, Catholic total 1,278,009,000 (48.6%), Wider Protestant total including Independents 1,047,295,000 (39.8%), Orthodox total including Eastern and Oriental 293,158,000 (11.1%)
  11. ↑ Pew Research Center (18 December 2012). "The Global Religious Landscape. Christians".
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  13. 1 2 3 Miller, Donald E; Sargeant, Kimon H; Flory, Richard, eds. (9 September 2013). Spirit and Power: The Growth and Global Impact of Pentecostalism. Oxford University Press Scholarship. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199920570.001.0001. ISBN   978-0-19-934563-2. Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world
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  17. 1 2 3 A. Elwell, Walter (2017). Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Baker Academic. ISBN   9781493410774. Pentecostalism arguably has been the fastest growing religious movement in the contemporary world
  18. 1 2 3 "Protestantism: The fastest growing religion in the developing world". The Manila Times. 18 November 2017. At the heart of this religious resurgence are Islam and Pentecostalism, a branch of Protestant Christianity. Islam grew at an annual average of 1.9 percent between 2000 and 2017, mainly as the result of a high birth rate. Pentecostalism grew at 2.2 percent each year, mainly by conversion. Half of developing-world Christians are Pentecostal, evangelical or charismatic (all branches of the faith emphasize the authority of the Bible and the need for a spiritual rebirth). Why are people so attracted to it?.
  19. 1 2 3 "The Economist". The Economists. 18 November 2017. Pentecostalism grew at 2.2 percent each year, mainly by conversion. Half of developing-world Christians are Pentecostal, evangelical or charismatic.{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
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  58. ↑ P. Daniels, Timothy (2017). Sharia Dynamics: Islamic Law and Sociopolitical Processes. Springer. p. 102. ISBN   9783319456928. almost two million nominal Muslims to convert to Christianity
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  114. ↑ Carnes, Nat (2012). Al-Maghred, the Barbary Lion: A Look at Islam. University of Cambridge Press. p. 253. ISBN   9781475903423. . In all an estimated 40,000 Moroccans have converted to Christianity
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  116. ↑ "Morocco's 'hidden' Christians to push for religious freedom". AfricanNews. 30 January 2017. There are no official statistics, but leaders say there are about 50,000 Moroccan Christians, most of them from the Protestant Evangelical tradition.
  117. ↑ "MOROCCO2019INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT" (PDF). RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT. 30 January 2019. the Moroccan Association of Human Rights estimates there are 25,000 Christian citizens. One media source reported that while most Christians in the country are foreigners, there are an estimated 8,000 Christian citizens and that "several thousand" citizens have converted, mostly to Protestant churches..
  118. ↑ "Morocco's Christian converts emerge from the shadows". Time of Israel. 30 April 2017. Converts to Christianity form a tiny minority of Moroccans. While no official statistics exist, the US State Department estimates their numbers at between 2,000 and 6,000.
  119. ↑ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Morocco: General situation of Muslims who converted to Christianity, and specifically those who converted to Catholicism; their treatment by Islamists and the authorities, including state protection (2008-2011)". Refworld.
  120. ↑ "International Religious Freedom Report for 2011 – Morocco". Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
  121. ↑ "'House-Churches' and Silent Masses —The Converted Christians of Morocco Are Praying in Secret". vice.com. 23 March 2015.
  122. ↑ "Maroc: La conversion de musulmans au christianisme soulève la colère dans le pays".
  123. ↑ Osservatorio Internazionale: "La tentazione di Cristo" April 2010
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  126. ↑ Newman, Barbara (2005). Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN   9780345481856. Many of the minority of Muslims who came in this wave married Argentinean women and converted to Catholicism
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  130. 1 2 "A Portrait of Jewish Americans: Chapter 1: Population Estimates". Pew Research Center. October 2013.
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  132. ↑ "Jewish Americans in 2020". Pew Research Center. 11 May 2021. That means that one-third of those raised Jewish or by Jewish parent(s) are not Jewish today, either because they identify with a religion other than Judaism (including 19% who consider themselves Christian) or because they do not currently identify as Jewish either by religion or aside from religion.
  133. 1 2 "Islam gains about as many converts as it loses in U.S." 26 January 2018.
  134. ↑ "Why Are Millions of Muslims Becoming Christian?". Archived from the original on 26 July 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
  135. ↑ Scott, Rob (2017). Mount Taylor. University of Tasmania Press. ISBN   9781387230914. Although approximately 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually, ... In 2010 were approximately 180,000 and about 130,000 Iranian Americans who converted from Islam to Christianity.[ permanent dead link ]
  136. 1 2 3 Kosmin, Barry A.; Keysar, Ariela (2009). "American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008" (PDF). Hartford, Connecticut, USA: Trinity College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2009. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
  137. ↑ USSD Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2009). "International Religious Freedom Report 2009". Archived from the original on 30 November 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2010.
  138. ↑ A El Shafie, Majed (2012). Freedom Fighter: One Man's Fight for One Free World. Destiny Image Publishers. ISBN   9780768487732. It estimated the Afghan Christian community ranges from 500 to 8,000 people. For all practical purposes, there are no native Afghan Christians; they are all converts from Islam who worship in secret to avoid being killed for apostasy..
  139. ↑ The 2011 International Religious Freedom Report. University of California Press. 2018. p. 86. ISBN   9780160905346. all indigenous Christians ( whose numbers are impossible to determine but have been estimated by the State Department at 500-8,000 ) are converts from Islam
  140. ↑ "5,000 Azerbaijanis adopted Christianity" (in Russian). Day.az. 7 July 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  141. ↑ "Christian Missionaries Becoming Active in Azerbaijan" (in Azerbaijani). Tehran Radio. 19 June 2011. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  142. ↑ Aras, Bülent (1999). Oil and Geopolitics in the Caspian Sea Region. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 166. ISBN   9780275963958. According to Iranian sources in Baku, Western "religious front associations" have converted some 5,000 Azerbaijanis to various Christian evangelical denominations since 1991
  143. ↑ Monnier, F. le (2009). Rivista di studi politici internazionali. Facoltà di scienze politiche "Cesare Alfieri. p. 69. ISBN   9780275963958. the 1990s these front organizations succeeded in converting some 5,000 Azeris to various Christian evangelical
  144. ↑ Khalil, Mohammad Hassan; Bilici, Mucahit (January 2007). "Conversion Out of Islam: A Study of Conversion Narratives of Former Muslims" (PDF). The Muslim World. 97: 111–124. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.2007.00161.x. hdl: 2027.42/72141 – via deepblue.lib.umich.edu.
  145. ↑ "The treatment of Christians in Bangladesh" (PDF). Refugee Review Tribunal: Australia. 23 November 2006. In the last thirty years, there has been an increase in the number of Muslims converting to Christianity. According to one estimate, in the period between 1971 and 1991, the number of Christian converts in Bangladesh has risen from two hundred thousand to four hundred thousand..
  146. ↑ "Country Policy and Information Note - Bangladesh: Religious minorities and atheists". Home Office. 23 October 2018. Archived from the original on 15 July 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2022. it is estimated that as many as 91,000 Muslims across Bangladesh have converted to Christianity in the last six years.
  147. ↑ "《中国保障宗教信仰自由的政策和实践》白皮书（全文）". 3 April 2018. Archived from the original on 8 May 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  148. 1 2 Yang, Fenggang (20 January 2017). "Chinese Conversion to Evangelical Christianity: The Importance of Social and Cultural Contexts". Sociology of Religion. 59 (3). Oxford University Press: 237–257. doi:10.2307/3711910. JSTOR   3711910.
  149. ↑ "Christianity in China". Council on Foreign Relations.
  150. ↑ R. Burrow, William (2009). Redemption And Dialogue. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 201. ISBN   9781608991167.
  151. ↑ "Indians say it is important to respect all religions, but major religious groups see little in common and want to live separately". Pew Research Center. 29 June 2021. For Christians, however, there are some net gains from conversion
  152. ↑ Barrett, David B.; Kurian, George Thomas; Johnson, Todd M., eds. (15 February 2001). World Christian Encyclopedia p.374. Oxford University Press USA. ISBN   0195079639.
  153. ↑ "In Indonesia, Lunar New Year an old practice for young Christians". Archived from the original on 28 November 2011. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  154. ↑ Brazier, Roderick (27 April 2006). "Opinion | In Indonesia, the Chinese go to church (Published 2006)". The New York Times.
  155. ↑ "In Indonesia, Lunar New Year an old practice for young Christians". Agence France-Presse. 7 February 2008. Archived from the original on 28 November 2011. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  156. ↑ "Report: Iran: Christian converts and house churches (1) –prevalence and conditions for religious practice Translation provided by the Office of the Commissioner-General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, Belgium" (PDF). Office of the Commissioner-General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, Belgium. 22 February 2009. In his research article, Miller (2015, p. 71) points to an anonymous, but the well-informed source that estimated that in 2010, there were about 100,000 converts in Iran... estimated the number of Christian ethnic Persians to be about 175,000. these were claimed to be converts of Shiite Muslim background.
  157. ↑ "Iranians Turn Away from the Islamic Republic". Journal of Democracy. 22 January 2020.
  158. ↑ "'Our second mother': Iran's converted Christians find sanctuary in Germany". The Guardian. 12 May 2014. The underground nature of the Christian conversion movement has made numbers impossible to determine accurately. Estimates range from 300,000 to 500,000 by various sources.
  159. ↑ "2019 Report on International Religious Freedom: Iran". United States Department of State. 12 May 2019. estimates citing figures lower than 10,000, and others, such as Open Doors USA, citing numbers above 800,000, Many Protestants and converts to Christianity from Islam reportedly practice in secret.
  160. ↑ "Are Iran's Christian converts at greater risk after Soleimani's demise?". The Jerusalem Post. 7 February 2018. Conservative estimates place the number of Christians in Iran between 500,000 to 800,000 believers, but others claim there are more than one million. Traditionally, Christian families amount to around 250,000, while the remainder consists of converts from Islam. Most converts from Islam belong to the underground Protestant house-church movement, which Iran considers to be illegal. Meanwhile, according to Islamic and Iranian law, conversion from Islam is a capital offense.
  161. ↑ "Iran: Christians and Christian converts - Department of Justice". Home Office. 20 February 2020. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2022. Open Doors, interviewed by the UK Home Office on 8 August 2017, stated that many converts do not publicly report their faith due to persecution, so it is difficult to record the exact numbers of Iranian Christian converts. Open Doors believes the number to be 800,000, although this is a conservative estimate. Other estimates put the number between 400,000-500,000 right up to 3 million... A March 2019 US Congressional Research Service report on Iran put the 300,000
  162. ↑ "Iranians Turn Away from the Islamic Republic". Journal of Democracy. 20 January 2020.
  163. ↑ "Iran's Christian Boom". JewishPress. 29 June 2021. Shay Khatiri of Johns Hopkins University wrote last year about Iran that "Islam is the fastest shrinking religion there, while Christianity is growing the fastest."
  164. ↑ "America Must Focus on Religious Persecution against Iranian Christian Converts". providence. 3 August 2020. Speaking of faith and Iran, most people think of Islam. Yet Islam is the fastest shrinking religion there, while Christianity is growing the fastest. According to a report by the Department of State from 2018, up to half a million Iranians are Christian converts from Muslim families, and most of these Christians are evangelicals. Recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between one million and three million. This is up from 100,000 in 1994, and a majority of these converts are reportedly women. A recent documentary, Sheep among Wolves, documents the lives of these converts and shows how Iran is the "fastest-growing church" in the world.
  165. ↑ "America Must Focus on Religious Persecution against Iranian Christian Converts". providence. 3 August 2020. Recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between one million and three million.
  166. ↑ "Religion and Religious Freedom". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  167. ↑ Kato, Mariko (24 February 2009). "Christianity's long history in the margins". Japan Times . The Christian community itself counts only those who have been baptized and are currently regular churchgoers – some 1 million people, or less than 1 percent of the population, according to Nobuhisa Yamakita, moderator of the United Church of Christ in Japan
  168. ↑ "Christians use English to reach Japanese youth". Mission Network News. 3 September 2007. Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 27 December 2018. The population of Japan is less than one-percent Christian
  169. ↑ Heide Fehrenbach, Uta G. Poiger (2000). Transactions, transgressions, transformations: American culture in Western Europe and Japan. Berghahn Books. p. 62. ISBN   1-57181-108-7. followers of the Christian faith constitute only about a half percent of the Japanese population
  170. ↑ "After fatalism, Japan opens to faith". mercatornet. 17 October 2007. Archived from the original on 20 July 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2022. The 2006 Gallup poll, however, disclosed that an astounding 12 per cent of Japanese who claim a religion are now Christian, making six per cent of the entire nation Christian.
  171. ↑ R. McDermott, Gerald (2014). Handbook of Religion: A Christian Engagement with Traditions, Teachings, and Practices. Baker Academic. ISBN   9781441246004.
  172. ↑ Radford, David (2015). Religious Identity and Social Change: Explaining Christian conversion in a Muslim world. Routledge. ISBN   9781317691716. Today it is possible to speak of thousand of Kyrgyz and Kazakhs converted to Protestantism. This new phenomenon has clashed with the common belief that all native people must be Muslim
  173. ↑ Akçalı, Pınar (2013). Politics, Identity and Education in Central Asia: Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Routledge. ISBN   9781135627676.
  174. ↑ "Religion and the Secular State in Kyrgyzstan" (PDF). The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies. 20 June 2020. P.25: By the early 2000s, some scholars estimated the total number of Kyrgyz converts to Christianity to about 25,000
  175. 1 2 Ahmad Farouk Musa; Mohd Radziq Jalaluddin; Ahmad Fuad Rahmat; Edry Faizal Eddy Yusuf (22 October 2011). "What is Himpun about?". The Star. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  176. ↑ RChinyong Liow, Joseph (2016). Religion and Nationalism in Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 142. ISBN   9781107167728. Harussani Zakaria, publicly fulminated that up to 260,000 Muslims in Malaysia had left the faith and converted to Christianity
  177. ↑ "Better-educated S'pore residents look to religion". asiaone.com.
  178. ↑ Nai-Chiu Poon, Michael (2010). Christian Movements in Southeast Asia: A Theological Exploration. Trinity Theological College (Singapore). pp. 60–61. ISBN   9789814305150. The social influence of Christianity, however, extends far beyond its membership especially in the sphere of education, giving Christianity a middle-class identity... Conversion is increasing among Chinese in Singapore, both into Christianity and into Buddhism.
  179. ↑ "Presidential Election in South Korea Highlights Influence of Christian Community". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 12 December 2007.
  180. ↑ "The Muslim refugees converting to Christianity 'to find safety'". Telegraph. 30 January 2017.
  181. ↑ "Christianity grows in Syrian town once besieged by Islamic State". Reuters. 16 April 2019. A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani
  182. ↑ Granli, Elisabet (2011). "Religious conversion in Syria : Alawite and Druze believers". University of Oslo .
  183. ↑ Abdullaev, Kamoludin (2018). Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 370. ISBN   9781538102527. In 2016, the government estimated the number of Christian converts at up to 3,000 persons.
  184. ↑ "Topix". topix.com.
  185. ↑ "Fearing a new holy empire: Just when Turks are worried about Christians, here comes the Pope". Maclean's. 4 December 2006. Archived from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2022. More tangibly, figures published in January 2004 in Turkey's mainstream Milliyet newspaper claimed that 35,000 Muslims, the vast majority of them in Istanbul, had converted to Christianity in 2003. While impossible to confirm (the Turkish government does not release these figures), the rate of conversion, according to Christian leaders in Turkey, is on the rise.
  186. ↑ "International Institute for Religious Freedom: Single Post". Iirf.eu. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  187. ↑ report, MRG international (2007). A Quest for Equality: Minorities in Turkey. Minority Rights Group International. p. 13. ISBN   9781904584636. The estimated number of Protestants in Turkey is 3,000–10,000, most of whom live in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Protestantism has been a part of Turkey's history for 200 years, first spreading among the non-Muslim minorities. Conversion from Islam to Protestantism was very rare until the 1960s, but Muslim converts currently constitute the majority of Protestants..
  188. ↑ White, Jenny (2014). Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks: Updated Edition. Princeton University Press. p. 82. ISBN   9781400851256. a number that vastly exceeds the size of present-day Turkish-speaking Protestant churches, of whose 3,000 members are converts from Islam
  189. ↑ "Christian Converts Live In Fear in Intolerant Turkey". Der Spiegel. 23 April 2007. The liberal newspaper Radikal estimates that there are about 10,000 converts in Turkey, expressing surprise that they could be seen as a "threat" in a country of 73 million people, 99 percent of whom are Muslim.
  190. ↑ Luxmoore, Jonathan (4 March 2011). "Turkish Protestants still face 'long path' to religious freedom". The Christian Century. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  191. ↑ "Turkey - Christians in eastern Turkey worried despite church opening". Hürriyet Daily News. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  192. ↑ White, Jenny (27 April 2014). Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks - Jenny White. Princeton University Press. ISBN   9781400851256 . Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  193. ↑ "Turkey: Protestant church closed down | Church in Chains - Ireland :: An Irish voice for suffering, persecuted Christians Worldwide". Churchinchains.ie. 3 October 2014. Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  194. ↑ Mvan Gorder, Christian (2018). Muslim-Christian Relations in Central Asia. Routledge. p. 17. ISBN   9781135971694.
  195. ↑ "Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 2005 – Vietnam". U.S. Department of State. 30 June 2005. Retrieved 11 March 2007.
  196. ↑ "The Perilous Path from Muslim to Christian". The National Interest. 12 June 2021. Reports of widespread conversions of Muslims to Christianity come from regions as disparate as Algeria, Albania, Syria, and Kurdistan.
  197. 1 2 "GOD IN THE "LAND OF THE MERCEDES" THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN ALBANIA SINCE 1990". Nathalie CLAYER. 22 November 2007. P.19: A part of the Muslims in emigration are directly or indirectly induced to convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy
  198. 1 2 Blumi, Isa; Krasniqi, Gëzim (2014). "Albanians' Islam". In Cesari, Jocelyne (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of European Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 480–482. ISBN   9780191026409.
  199. ↑ De Rapper, Gilles (2005). "Better than Muslims, Not as Good as Greeks: Emigration as Experienced and Imagined by the Albanian Christians of Lunxhëri". In King, Russell; Mai, Nicola; Schwandner-Sievers, Stephanie (eds.). The New Albanian Migration. Brighton-Portland: Sussex Academic. p. 210. ISBN   9781903900789.
  200. ↑ Kokkali, Ifigeneia (2015). "Albanian Immigrants in the Greek City: Spatial 'Invisibility' and Identity Management as a Strategy of Adaptation". In Vermeulen, Hans; Baldwin-Edwards, Martin; Van Boeschoten, Riki (eds.). Migration in the Southern Balkans. From Ottoman Territory to Globalized Nation States. Cham: Springer Open. pp. 129, 134–135. ISBN   9783319137193.
  201. ↑ P. Chall, Leo (1998). Sociological Abstracts. Michigan University Press. p. 3844. In 1990, as the situation began to worsen, many Muslim Albanians contemplated a mass conversion to Catholicism
  202. ↑ "In Europe, many Muslims renounce Islam, embrace Christianity: Report". oneindia.com. 20 November 2014.
  203. ↑ "Structure of the population by confession". NSI. Archived from the original on 25 December 2009. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  204. ↑ "Ethnic minority communities". NSI. Archived from the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  205. ↑ "Urban culture, religious conversion, and crossing ethnic fluidity among the Bulgarian Muslims ("Pomaks")". New Bulgarian University. 5 March 2015. Numerous cases of conversion from Islam to Orthodox Christianity are just one of the ways to express the changes in the fluid identity of Bulgarian Muslims ("Pomaks") in Bulgaria after 1990
  206. ↑ "Islam in Denmark – an historical overview". Nordic.info. 4 April 2019. Conversion to Christianity also surfaced, not least among the group of refugees arriving from the early 1980s from different areas in the Muslim world hit by civil wars or inter-state conflicts.
  207. 1 2 Visser, Nadette De (25 May 2016). "Why Are So Many Muslim Refugees in Europe Suddenly Finding Jesus?". The Daily Beast. In the Netherlands and Denmark, as well, many are converting from Islam to Christianity, and the trend appears to be growing. Indeed, converts are filling up some European churches largely forsaken by their old Christian flocks.
  208. ↑ IFOP press document retrieved 4 March 2013
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  210. ↑ Fahlbusch, Erwin; Bromiley, Geoffrey William; Lochman, Jan Milic; Mbiti, John; Pelikan, Jaroslav; Vischer, Lukas; Barrett, David B. (2003). The Encyclopedia of Christianity: J-O. Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN   9780802824158.
  211. ↑ M. Davis, Stephen (2020). Rise of French Laicite: French Secularism from the Reformation to the Twenty-first Century. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 199. ISBN   9781725264090. Richard Kronk has extensively researched Muslim conversion in France. He provides examples of the challenges faced by Muslim converts to Christianity. His research primarily deals with Christians of Maghrebi background (CMB) From Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.
  212. ↑ A. West, Barbara (2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 3. ISBN   9781438119137. more than 20,000 Abkhazian Muslims converted to Christianity
  213. ↑ Bureau, Liana Aghajanian for the Tehran (12 May 2014). "'Our second mother': Iran's converted Christians find sanctuary in Germany". The Guardian.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  214. ↑ Özyürek, Esra (2008). Convert Alert: German Muslims and Turkish Christians as Threats to Security in the New Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 76. ISBN   9781725264090. gained through ethnographic research with Turkish and Kurdish converts to Christianity in both Turkey and German.
  215. ↑ Hann, Chris (2006). The Postsocialist Religious Question: Faith and Power in Central Asia and East-Central Europe. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN   9783825899042.
  216. ↑ Wilfred, Felix (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199329069.
  217. ↑ Bytyci, Fatos (29 September 2008). "Out of hiding, some Kosovars embrace Christianity". Reuters.
  218. ↑ "Out of hiding, some Kosovars embrace Christianity". Reuters. 29 September 2008.
  219. ↑ "Muslim Kosovars rediscover their long-forgotten Roman Catholic roots". Washington post. 6 May 2015.
  220. ↑ "Religious communities and life stance communities". ssb.no.
  221. ↑ "Moslim die christen wordt leeft in angst". Friesch Dagblad (in Dutch). 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  222. ↑ "Iranian refugees turn to Christianity in the Netherlands". BBC. 25 August 2017. In the Netherlands, thousands of Iranian Muslim migrants and refugees are converting to Christianity, despite conversion from Islam being considered apostasy in Iran and punishable by death.
  223. ↑ "Interfax-Religion". interfax-religion.com.
  224. ↑ Arena - Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia. Sreda.org
  225. ↑ 2012 Survey Maps Archived 20 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine . "Ogonek", № 34 (5243), 27 August 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  226. ↑ name="Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), Fler Kristna väljer att bli muslimer, 19 November 2007 (Accessed 19 November 2007)"
  227. ↑ Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), Fler kristna väljer att bli muslimer Archived 2009-03-21 at the Wayback Machine , November 19, 2007 (Accessed November 19, 2007)
  228. ↑ "Christian convert from Iran converting Muslims in Sweden". FoxNews. 17 January 2018.
  229. ↑ Mostafavi Mobasher, Mohsen (2018). The Iranian Diaspora: Challenges, Negotiations, and Transformations. University of Texas Press. p. 82. ISBN   9781477316672. There is no space to elaborate here, but the research carried out by Spellman (2004b) and Miller (2014) sheds light on the growth of Iranian Muslim conversion to born-again Christianity in England and Scotland
  230. ↑ "Iranian Christians in Leeds: xperiences of Church Membership" (PDF). University of Leeds. 17 September 2018. P.9: Iranian Christian converts in Britain form three distinguishable groups depending on where they've converted: 1. Those who converted in Iran 2. Those who converted in transit (mostly Turkey) 3. Those who converted in Britain
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