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OVER THE NEXT four decades, Islam is expected to grow faster than any other major religion worldwide, with the Muslim population nearly matching Christians in both number and share of the global population, according to projections released today.
Christians will remain the largest religious group, increasing to 2.92 billion adherents by 2050 if current demographic trends continue.
But Muslims will reach 2.76 billion, making each faith group about 30 percent of the world population, analysts from the Pew Research Center said.
Future of the World Religions
The projections in the report, The Future of World Religions, are based on birth and death rates, immigration patterns and rates of religious conversions, among other information found in censuses, demographic surveys and additional reports that asked people to identify what faith they follow.
Much of the growth of both Christianity and Islam will occur in Africa.
But Muslims will also grow to comprise 10 percent of Europe’s population and will outnumber Jews in the US by mid-century.
India is expected to retain a Hindu majority, but the country will surpass Indonesia as the nation with the world’s largest Muslim population.
As a group, Muslims are younger and have more children than members of other faiths, driving their global growth, researchers said.
The report is the latest to measure how Christianity in developing countries is far outpacing the growth of the faith in the West. By 2050, four in 10 Christians are expected to be located in Africa.
And Christians will no longer be a majority in the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
Atheists and agnostics
Atheists, agnostics and people who don’t identify with a religion will increase in much of Europe and North America, but globally will drop from about 16% to 13% of the population.
Within the US, people with no religious affiliation are projected to become more than a quarter of the population, while the share of Christians is expected to decrease from more than three-quarters to two-thirds.
The number of Buddhists will remain about the same, but because of overall global population growth, will comprise a smaller share of the world’s population. Hindus will grow to reach 1.4 billion people.
Worldwide, the number of Jews is expected to grow by about 16 percent to 16.1 million.
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The Mercy has been overwhelmed for a very long time now, this was inevitable. There have been documented accounts of fights at the front door and violence inside the A&E. Overcrowding in the A&E and lack of beds is only going to escalate tensions and potential conflict. A review now is insulting a very much too little too late. I feel sorry for the staff having to deal with this, it’s very much not an isolated incident. Management, the HSE and the minister need a proper response to this, not a short term fix. RIP to Mr Healy and sympathies to his family, horrendous news.
Typiclal Union attempting to score points. Show some respect ffs
@SquideyeMagpie: The INMO has highlighted this issue well before this incident. There has been 33000 assaults on nurses in the last 7 years.
@Maria: Sick society.
It saddens me that this type of violence has crossed over into our Hospitals and the safety of those nurses and doctors is further put at risk. We all know this has been a long time coming, from drunks overcrowding A&E’s to drug addicts to mental health issues. But yet the priority by the I.N.M.O. and Phil Ní Sheaghdha is solely pay ( I totally get and support the pay issue), whereas the priority should surely be about safe working conditions and safety for patients. Are issues like safety, recruitment, i.e. more staff, agencies and the training and keeping of more nurses. Are safety conditions not more worthy of strike action than pay. It is not that the H.S.E. and I.N.M.O. etc don’t know what the problems are, it is that they don’t want to be bothered by trying to find a solution. E.G. Last week the HSE paid out E31m in compensation in a birth case, which has been an ongoing issue for years but it keeps on happening, that money and the excessive amounts paid to recruitment agencies could be pumped back into Health. Two weeks ago
Perhaps Minister Neale Richmond could do what Damien English failed to do and challenge the injunction Top Security have opposing the ERO for security workers who are stuck on €11.65/h since 2019
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