India Will Have Biggest Muslim Population by 2050

Indian Muslim women light candles in Mumbai to express solidarity with France

Washington, 15 Rabiul Akhir 1437/25 January 2016 (MINA) – Hinduism will become the world’s third largest religion by 2050 while India will overtake Indonesia as the country with the largest Muslim population, according to a new study.

The Hindu population worldwide will rise by 34%, from a little over 1 billion to nearly 1.4 billion by 2050, the Pew
Research Center’s study on “The Future of World Regions” projected, Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) reported on Monday, quoting the Hindustan Times.

Hindus will make up 14.9% of the world’s total population, behind Christians (31.4%) and Muslims (29.7%), while people unaffiliated to any religious group will account for 13.2%, the study said.

“By 2050, the study projects India to be the country with the largest number of Muslims – more than 310 million – even though Hindus will continue to make up a solid majority of India’s population (77%), while Muslims remain a minority (18%),” Pew Research Center said.

“Indonesia will have the third-largest number of Muslims, with Pakistan ranking second,” it said.
Muslims are projected to grow faster than the world’s overall population growth while Hindus and Christians are projected to roughly keep pace with growth trends, the study said.

“Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion,” it said.

The report predicted that by 2050 there will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30% of the population) and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31%), possibly for the first time in history.

There were 1.6 billion Muslims in 2010, compared to 2.17 billion Christians.

If current trends continue, Islam will become the world’s most popular faith after 2070, it said.

“The farther into the future we look, the more uncertainty exists, which is why the projections stop at 2050. But if they are extended into the second half of this century, the projections forecast Muslims and Christians to be roughly equal in number around 2070, with Muslims the slightly larger group after that year,” the organisation said.

By 2050, Muslims will make up about 10% of Europe’s population, up from 5.9% in 2010. (T/R07/R01 )

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)