Christian population growth explained

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. In 2020, Pew estimated the number of Christians worldwide to be around 2.38 billion.^[1] 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.^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]} In 2023, it was reported: "There will be over 2.6 billion Christians worldwide by the middle of 2023 and around 3.3 billion by 2050, according to a report published in early January by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary."^{[8] [9]}

Summary

Demographics of major traditions within Christianity (Pew Research Center, 2010 data)^[10]

Tradition	Followers	% of the Christian population	% of the world population	Follower dynamics	Dynamics in- and outside Christianity
Catholic Church	1,094,610,000	50.1	15.9	Growing	Stable
Protestantism	800,640,000	36.7	11.6	Growing	Growing
Orthodoxy	260,380,000	11.9	3.8	Shrinking	Shrinking
Other denominations	28,430,000	1.3	0.4	Growing	Growing
Christianity	2,184,060,000	100	31.7	Stable	Stable

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)
World	30
Sub-Saharan Africa	19	18
Latin America-Caribbean	27	27
Asia-Pacific	28	29
Middle East-North Africa	29	24
North America	39	37
Europe	42	40

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. 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. 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.

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 second, with 2.7 children per woman.^[20]

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.^[21]

Country	Fertility rate (2019) (births/woman)^[22]	Percent Christian
Ecuador	2.40	94%
	3.94	99%
Armenia	1.76	98.6%
Equatorial Guinea	4.43	92%
	1.27	95.3%
	2.25	88.0%
Greece	1.35	90%

Conversion

See also: Convert to Christianity and List of people who converted to Christianity.

• According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, approximately 2.7 million convert to Christianity annually from another religion; World Christian Encyclopedia also stated that Christianity ranks in first place in net gains through religious conversion.^[23] While, according to book "The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion", which published by the professor of Christian mission Charles E. Farhadian,^[24] and the professor of psychology Lewis Ray Rambo,^[25] between 1990 and 2000, approximately 1.9 million people converted to Christianity from another religion, with Christianity ranking first in net gains through religious conversion.^[26]
• According to "The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion", in mid-2005 approximately 15.5 million converted to Christianity from another religion, approximately 11.7 million left Christianity, and most of them became irreligious, resulting in a net gain of 3.8 million.^[27] Christianity added about 65.1 million people due to factors such as birth rate and religious conversion, while it lost 27.4 million people due to factors such as death rate and religious apostasy in mid-2005. Most of the net growth in the numbers of Christians is in Africa, Latin America and Asia.^[27]
• According to scholar Philip Jenkins Christianity was growing rapidly in China and some other Asian countries and sub-Saharan Africa around 2002.^[28]
• According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world; this growth is primarily due to religious conversion to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. According to Pulitzer Center 35,000 people become Pentecostal or "Born again" every day.^[29] According to scholar Keith Smith of Georgia State University "many scholars claim that Pentecostalism is the fastest growing religious phenomenon in human history", and according to scholar Peter L. Berger of Boston University "the spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion".^[30]
• According to a 2012 report by the Singapore Management University, more people in Southeast Asia were converting to Christianity, and these new converts are mostly Chinese business managers.^[31] Scholars Juliette Koning and Heidi Dahles of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stated that there was a "rapid expansion of charismatic Christianity from the 1980s onwards. Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia were said to have the fastest-growing Christian communities and the majority of the new believers are "upwardly mobile, urban, middle-class Chinese". Asia has the second largest Pentecostal-charismatic Christians of any continent, with the number growing from 10 million to 135 million between 1970 and 2000". According to scholar Wang Zuoa, 500,000 Chinese convert to Protestantism annually.^[32] According to scholar Todd Hartch of Eastern Kentucky University, by 2005, around 6 million Africans converted to Christianity annually.^[33]
• Conversion into Christianity has significantly increased among Korean,^[34] Chinese,^[35] and Japanese in the United States.^[36] In 2012, the percentage of Christians in these communities were 71%, 30% and 37% respectively.^[37]
• Due to conversion, the number of Chinese Christians increased significantly from 4 million before 1949 to 67 million in 2010.^[38]
• It's been reported also that increasing numbers of young people or educated people are becoming Christians in several countries such as China,^{[39] [40]} Hong Kong,^[41] Indonesia,^[42] Iran,^{[43] [44]} Japan, Singapore,^{[45] [46] [47]} and South Korea.^[48]
• The 2015 Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census study published by Baylor University institute for studies of religion estimates that 10.2 million Muslims converted to Christianity based on global missionary data. Countries with the largest numbers of Muslims converted to Christianity according to this study include Indonesia (6,500,000),^[49] Nigeria (600,000),^[49] Iran (500,000 versus only 500 in 1979),^[49] the United States (450,000),^[50] Ethiopia (400,000) and Algeria (380,000).^[49] Indonesia is home to the largest Christian community made up of converts from their former Islamic faith; according to various sources, since the mid and late 1960s, between two million and 2.5 million Muslims converted to Christianity.^{[51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57]}
• According to the Council on Foreign Relations, in 2007 experts estimated that thousands of Muslims in the Western world were converting to Christianity annually, but did not publicize their conversions due to fear of retribution.^[58]

By branches

Catholic Church

See main article: Catholic Church by country.

• Church membership in 2019 was 1.34 billion people^[59] (18% of the global population at the time), increasing from the 1950 figure of 437 million^[60] and 654 million in 1970.^{[61] [62]} On 31 December 2008, membership was 1.166 billion, an increase of 11.54% over the same date in 2000,^[63] and slightly greater than the rate of increase of the world population (10.77%). The increase was 33.02% in Africa, but only 1.17% in Europe. It was 15.91% in Asia, 11.39% in Oceania, and 10.93% in Americas. As a result, Catholics were 17.77% of the total population in Africa, 63.10% in Americas, 3.05% in Asia, 39.97% in Europe, 26.21% in Oceania, and 17.40% of the world population. Of the world's Catholics, the proportion living in Africa grew from 12.44% in 2000 to 14.84% in 2008, while those living in Europe fell from 26.81% to 24.31%. However, Catholic numbers have grown in Scandinavia where the Catholics in Nordic dioceses have tripled or even quadrupled. For example, in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, 330,000 Catholics have now registered in their dioceses.^{[64] [65]} Membership of the Catholic Church is attained through baptism,^[66] and from 1983 to 2009, if someone formally left the Church, that fact was noted in the register of the person's baptism.
• Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiles the Vatican's yearbook, said in a 2008 interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that "For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us." He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population—a stable percentage—while Muslims were at 19.2 percent. "It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer", the monsignor said,^[67] though Africa and parts of Asia are the exception. If the UN report in 2018 is on target, Africa's population will grow to 4.5 billion by 2100, adding to all African religious groups.^[68] Muslims in 2010 represented as much as 23.4% of the total world population and this is expected to increase to 26.3% by 2030.^[69] In 2016, the global Catholic population was projected to grow to 1.63 billion in 2050.^[70]

Eastern Orthodoxy

See main article: Eastern Orthodoxy by country.

Protestantism

See main article: Protestantism by country.

• According to Mark Jürgensmeyer of the University of California, popular Protestantism is one of the most dynamic religious movements in the contemporary world.^[71] Changes in worldwide Protestantism over the last century have been significant.^[72] Since 1900, due primarily to conversion, Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America.^[73]
• There are more than 1.17 billion Protestants worldwide,^{[74] [75] [76] [77] [78] [79] [80]} among approximately 2.4 billion Christians.^{[74] [81] [82] [83]} 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.^[75] Protestants account for nearly forty percent of Christians worldwide and more than one tenth of the total human population.^[75]
• Protestantism is growing in Africa, Eastern Europe,^{[84] [85]} Asia,^{[85] [86]} Latin America,^{[85] [87]} Muslim world, and Oceania, while remaining stable or declining in Anglo America^[88] and Europe,^[89] with some exceptions such as France,^[90] where it was nearly eradicated after the abolition of the Edict of Nantes by the Edict of Fontainebleau and the following persecution of Huguenots, but now is claimed to be stable in number or even growing slightly and the Spain, where the Protestantism is growing faster than other religious groups.^{[91] [92]} According to some, Russia is another country to see a Protestant revival.^{[93] [94] [95]}
• 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 Pulitzer Center 35,000 people become Pentecostal or "Born again" every day.^[29] According to scholar Keith Smith of Georgia State University "many scholars claim that Pentecostalism is the fastest growing religious phenomenon in human history",^[30] and according to scholar Peter L. Berger of Boston University "the spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion".^[30]

By continent

See also: Christianity by country.

• According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the World Christian Database as of 2007 estimated the six fastest-growing religions of the world to be Islam (1.84%), the Baháʼí Faith (1.7%), Sikhism (1.62%), Jainism (1.57%), Hinduism (1.52%) and Christianity (1.32%). High birth rates and conversions in the global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growths.^[96]
• The U.S. Center for World Mission stated a growth rate of Christianity at 2.3% for the period 1970 to 1996 (slightly higher than the world population growth rate at the time). This increased the claimed percentage of adherents of Christianity from 33.7% to 33.9%.^[97]
• The World Christian Database as of 2007 estimated the growth rate of Christianity at 1.32%. High birth rates and conversions were cited as the main reasons.^[98]
• Using data from the period 2000–2005 the 2006 Christian World Database estimated that by number of new adherents, Christianity was the fastest growing religion in the world with 30,360,000 new adherents in 2006. This was followed by Islam with 23,920,000 and Hinduism with 13,224,000 estimated new adherents in the same period.^[99]
• According to 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there are more than 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, up from about 600 million in 1910.^[75]
• The 2015 "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census" estimates 10,283,700 Muslim converted to Christianity around the world.
• On 2 April 2015, the Pew Research Center published a Demographic Study about "The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050" with projections regarding Christianity.^[100] The projection begins with 2010 statistics when "Christianity was by far the world's largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth. Islam was second, with 1.6 billion adherents, or 23% of the global population."^[100]

Projected growth of Christianity by 2050

Some of the projections are as follows:^[101]

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.

1. "In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050".

1. "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:^[100]

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".

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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

• Christianity has been estimated^[75] to be growing rapidly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.^[83] In Africa, for instance, in 1900, there were only 8.7 million^[75] adherents of Christianity; now there are 390 million,^[75] and it is expected that by 2025 there will be 600 million Christians in Africa.^[75] The number of Catholics in Africa has increased from one million in 1902 to 329,882,000.^[75] From 2015 to 2016 alone, Africa saw an increase of 49,767,000 Catholics, a larger increase than any other continent.^[102]
• According to scholar Todd Hartch of Eastern Kentucky University, by 2005, around 6 million Africans converted to Christianity annually.^[33]
• According to scholar R.V. Dmitriev, over 3.3 million African converted to Christianity in 2010.^[103]
• A 2015 study estimates 2,161,000 Muslim Africans that convert to Christianity.

Algeria

• Since 1960 a growing number of Algerian Muslims are converting to Christianity.^{[104] [105] [106] [107] [108]}
• Converts to Christianity may be investigated and searched by the authorities.^[109] Conversions to Christianity have been most common in Kabylie, especially in the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou.^[110]
• A 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Algeria.

Benin

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

Burkina Faso

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

Burundi

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

Cameroon

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

Central African Republic

• A 2015 study estimates 1,500 Muslims converted to Christianity in Central African Republic.

Egypt

• A 2015 study estimates some 14,000 Muslims who converted to Christianity in Egypt.^[111]

Ethiopia

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

Libya

• A 2015 study estimated some 1,500 believers in Christ from a Muslim background living in the country.^[111]

Morocco

• Since 1960 a growing number of Moroccan Muslims are converting to Christianity.^{[112] [113] [114] [115] [116]}
• 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.^[117] 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.^[118]
• According to different estimates, there are about 25,000-45,000 Moroccan Christians of Berber or Arab descent mostly converted from Islam.^[119] Other sources give a number of a bit more than 1,000.^[120] 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.^[121]

Nigeria

• The percentage of Christians in Nigeria grew from 21.4% in 1953 to 48.2% in 2011.^[122]
• ِA 2015 study estimates some 600,000 believers in Christ are from a Muslim background living in Nigeria.^[111]

South Africa

• In South Africa, Pentecostalism has grown from 0.2% in 1951 to 7.6% in 2001.^[123]

Tunisia

• International Religious Freedom Report for 2007 estimate thousands of Tunisian Muslims who convert to Christianity.^[124]

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.^{[111] [125]}
• Data from 2013, show that 64,000 Argentine Jews identify themselves as Christians.^[126]

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.^[111]

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.^[127] 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.^{[128] [129] [130]} 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. 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.^[131]

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.^[132] This was in contrast to Islam in America, where the number of people who leave the religion is roughly equal to the number who convert to it.^[132] 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.^[133] 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".^[134]

Religious Self-Identification of the U.S. Adult Population: 1990, 2001, 2008
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^[135] ! 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, total	175,440	207,983	228,182	30.1%
Adult population, Responded	171,409	196,683	216,367	26.2%	97.7%	94.6%	94.8%	−2.9%
Total Christian	151,225	159,514	173,402	14.7%	86.2%	76.7%	76.0%	−10.2%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Catholic	46,004	50,873	57,199	24.3%	26.2%	24.5%	25.1%	−1.2%
align=left style="text-indent:5px"	non-Catholic Christian	105,221	108,641	116,203	10.4%	60.0%	52.2%	50.9%	−9.0%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Baptist	33,964	33,820	36,148	6.4%	19.4%	16.3%	15.8%	−3.5%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Mainline Christian	32,784	35,788	29,375	−10.4%	18.7%	17.2%	12.9%	−5.8%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Methodist	14,174	14,039	11,366	−19.8%	8.1%	6.8%	5.0%	−3.1%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Lutheran	9,110	9,580	8,674	−4.8%	5.2%	4.6%	3.8%	−1.4%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Presbyterian	4,985	5,596	4,723	−5.3%	2.8%	2.7%	2.1%	−0.8%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Episcopalian/Anglican	3,043	3,451	2,405	−21.0%	1.7%	1.7%	1.1%	−0.7%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	United Church of Christ	438	1,378	736	68.0%	0.2%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Christian Generic	25,980	22,546	32,441	24.9%	14.8%	10.8%	14.2%	−0.6%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Christian Unspecified	8,073	14,190	16,384	102.9%	4.6%	6.8%	7.2%	2.6%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Non-denominational Christian	194	2,489	8,032	4040.2%	0.1%	1.2%	3.5%	3.4%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Protestant – Unspecified	17,214	4,647	5,187	−69.9%	9.8%	2.2%	2.3%	−7.5%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Evangelical/Born Again	546	1,088	2,154	294.5%	0.3%	0.5%	0.9%	0.6%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Pentecostal/Charismatic	5,647	7,831	7,948	40.7%	3.2%	3.8%	3.5%	0.3%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Pentecostal – Unspecified	3,116	4,407	5,416	73.8%	1.8%	2.1%	2.4%	0.6%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Assemblies of God	617	1,105	810	31.3%	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Church of God	590	943	663	12.4%	0.3%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Other Protestant Denominations	4,630	5,949	7,131	54.0%	2.6%	2.9%	3.1%	0.5%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Churches of Christ	1,769	2,593	1,921	8.6%	1.0%	1.2%	0.8%	−0.2%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Seventh-Day Adventist	668	724	938	40.4%	0.4%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Jehovah's Witnesses	1,381	1,331	1,914	38.6%	0.8%	0.6%	0.8%	0.1%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints	2,487	2,697	3,158	27.0%	1.4%	1.3%	1.4%	0.0%
Total non-Christian religions	5,853	7,740	8,796	50.3%	3.3%	3.7%	3.9%	0.5%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Jewish	3,137	2,837	2,680	−14.6%	1.8%	1.4%	1.2%	−0.6%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Eastern Religions	687	2,020	1,961	185.4%	0.4%	1.0%	0.9%	0.5%
align=left style="text-indent:40px"	Buddhist	404	1,082	1,189	194.3%	0.2%	0.5%	0.5%	0.3%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Muslim	527	1,104	1,349	156.0%	0.3%	0.5%	0.6%	0.3%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	New Religious Movements & Others	1,296	1,770	2,804	116.4%	0.7%	0.9%	1.2%	0.5%
None/ No religion, total	14,331	29,481	34,169	138.4%	8.2%	14.2%	15.0%	6.8%
align=left style="text-indent:20px"	Agnostic+Atheist	1,186	1,893	3,606	204.0%	0.7%	0.9%	1.6%	0.9%
Did Not Know/ Refused to reply	4,031	11,300	11,815	193.1%	2.3%	5.4%	5.2%	2.9%

Highlights:

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

• According to scholar Philip Jenkins Christianity is growing rapidly in China and some other Asian countries.^[28]
• According to a report by the Singapore Management University, more people in Southeast Asia are converting to Christianity, and these new converts are mostly Chinese business managers.^[31]
• According to scholar Juliette Koning and Heidi Dahles of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam there is a "rapid expansion of charismatic Christianity from the 1980s onwards. Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia are said to have the fastest-growing Christian communities and the majority of the new believers are "upwardly mobile, urban, middle-class Chinese". Asia has the second largest Pentecostal-charismatic Christians of any continent, with the number growing from 10 million to 135 million between 1970 and 2000".^[31]

Afghanistan

• The United States Department of State estimated the numbers of the Muslim Afghan who convert to Christianity between 500 and 8,000.^{[136] [137] [138]}

Azerbaijan

• According to reports there is about 5,000 ethnic Azerbaijani Protestant community most of them came from Muslim backgrounds.^{[139] [140] [141] [142]}

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.^[143]
• A 2015 study estimates some 130,000 Christians from a Muslim background residing in the Bangladesh, though not all are necessarily citizens.^[111]
• 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.^[144]
• The Home Office estimated that up to 91,000 Muslims have converted to Christianity in Bangladesh from 2012 to 2018.^[145]

China

• In recent years, the number of Chinese Christians has increased significantly, 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.^{[75] [38]} 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.^[146]
• 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",^[147] also according to him, more than half of them have university degrees.^[147]
• 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.^[148]

India

• Christianity is the third largest religion in India after Hinduism and Islam, with approximately 30 million followers.
• 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.^[111]
• 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.^[149]
• 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.^[150]

Indonesia

• According to various sources, between 1965 and 1985 about 2.5 million Indonesian converted from Islam to Christianity.^{[51] [52] [53] [151]}
• 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.^[152]
• 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.^[111]

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.^{[170] [171] [172]}

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.^[111]

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.^{[111] [173]}

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.^[111]

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.^[111]
• Exact numbers of Muslim Kyrgyz converts to Christianity vary but an estimate of around 20,000 is generally accepted among scholars^{[174] [175]}

Malaysia

• There is no well researched agreement on the actual number of Malaysian Muslim converts to Christianity in Malaysia.^[176] But according to Tan Sri Dr Harussani Zakaria, they are 260,000.^{[176] [177]}

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.^[111]

Saudi Arabia

A 2015 study estimates 60,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Saudi Arabia.^[152]

Singapore

• The percentage of Christians among Singaporeans increased from 12.7% in 1990 to 17.5% in 2010.^[178]
• According to scholar Michael Nai-Chiu Poon of University of Toronto conversion to Christianity was increasing among Chinese Singaporeans as of 2010.^[179]
• It's been reported also that increasing numbers of young people or educated people are becoming Christians in Singapore.^{[45] [46] [47]}

South Korea

• In South Korea, Christianity has grown from 20.7% in 1985 to 29.5% in 2005 according to the World Christian Database.^{[123] [180]}

Syria

• A 2015 study estimates some 2,000 Muslims who converted to Christianity in Syria, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism or Oriental Orthodoxy.^[111]
• Converting to Christianity is growing among Muslims in the Syrian diaspora,^[181] and among Kurds in Syria.^[182]
• By one estimate made by Elisabet Granli from University of Oslo, around 1,920 Syrian Druz converted to Christianity.^[183]

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.^{[111] [184]}

Turkey

• According to the newspaper "Milliyet", 35,000 Muslim Turks converted to Christianity in 2008.^{[185] [186]}
• A 2015 study estimates some 4,500 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in Turkey, most of them Turks.^[111] The ethnic Turkish Protestant Christian community in Turkey number about 4,000-5,000^{[187] [188] [189] [190]} adherents most of them came from Muslim Turkish background.^{[191] [192] [193] [194]}

Uzbekistan

• A 2015 study estimates some 10,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in the country,^[195] most of them belonging to some sort of evangelical or charismatic Protestant community.^[152]

Vietnam

• The US Department of State estimates that Protestant Christianity may have grown 600% over the last decade in Vietnam.^[196]

Europe

Albania

• Since 1960 a growing number of Albanian Muslims are converting to Christianity.^{[197] [198] [199] [200] [201] [202]}
• 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.^[111]
• Converting to Christianity is growing among Muslims in the Albanian diaspora.^{[198] [199]}

Belgium

• Reports estimated that "many" Muslims convert every year to Christianity in Belgium.^[203]

Bulgaria

• Reports estimated that thousands of Muslims (mostly Bulgarian Turks) convert every year to Christianity in Bulgaria.^{[204] [205] [206]} A 2015 study estimates 45,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism.^[111]

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.^{[111] [207] [208]}

France

• Protestants have increased as a percentage of total population from 1% in 1987 to 3% in 2009.^[209]
• Reports form Le Monde estimated that 15,000 Muslims convert every year to Christianity.^[210]
• Some scholars and media reports indicate that there been increasing numbers of conversions to Christianity among the Maghrebis in France.^{[211] [212]}

Georgia

• More than 20,000 Muslims have converted to Christianity in Georgia (Abkhazia).^[213]

Germany

• Reports estimated that thousands of Muslims convert every year to Christianity in Germany and vice versa.^[214]
• Some scholars and media reports indicate that there been increasing numbers of conversions to Christianity among Kurds and Turks in Germany.^[215] According to scholars Felix Wilfred from the University of Madras and Chris Hann from the University of Cambridge and Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, since the fall of communism, the number of Muslim converts to Christianity in Kyrgyzstan has been increased.^{[216] [217]}

Kosovo

• Reports estimated that hundreds of Muslims convert every year to Christianity in Kosovo.^{[218] [219] [220]}

Norway

• It is estimated that Orthodoxy is the fastest-growing religious faith in Norway, due to immigration from other countries, with a growth rate from 2000 to 2009 at 231.1%.^[221]

Netherlands

• Reports estimated that 4,500 Muslims have converted to Christianity in the Netherlands.^[222]
• In recent years a number of Dutch Muslims have converted to Christianity.^{[223] [208]}

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.^[224]
• According to a 2012 study, 17% of Jews in Russia identify themselves as Christians.^{[225] [226]}

Spain

• Between 1998 and 2018, Protestantism grew from 0.24% to 1.96% of the Spanish population.^{[91] [92]}

Sweden

• In recent years a number of Swedish Muslims have converted from Islam to the Church of Sweden, most noticeably by Iranians, but also by Arabs and Pakistanis.^{[227] [228] [229]}

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.^[111]
• In recent years a number of Muslims have converted to Christianity in the United Kingdom.^{[230] [231]}

Oceania

Australia

• A 2015 study estimates some 20,000 Muslim converted to Christianity in Australia, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism.^[111]

See also

• Muslim population growth
• Growth of religion
• Decline of Christianity in the Western world
• Christian views on contraception
• Christian mission
• Christianity by country
• Christian emigration

Notes and References

1. Web site: Religion Information Data Explorer GRF. 2022-10-13. www.globalreligiousfutures.org.
2. News: The List: The World's Fastest-Growing Religions. Foreign Policy. 14 May 2007. 11 February 2020. 29 March 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190329150234/https://foreignpolicy.com/2007/05/14/the-list-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religions/. live. Behind the trend: High birthrates and conversions in the global South..
3. Book: W. Kling, David. A History of Christian Conversion. 2020. 9780195320923. 586–587. Oxford University Press.
4. Book: R. Ross, Kenneth. Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity. 2017. 9781474412049. 17. Edinburgh University Press.
5. Book: Woodhea, Linda. An Introduction to Christianity. 2004. 9780521786553. 386. Cambridge University Press. Growth is related not only to conversion but also to a high rate of population growth..
6. Book: Tomalin, Emma. Religions and Development. 2013. 9781136827488. 6. Routledge.
7. Book: R.V, Dmitriev. African Studies in Russia: Works of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yearbook 2014-2016. 2018. 9781988391069. 60. MeaBooks Inc. 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..
8. Zach Dawes Jr., 13 Feb 2023, Good Faith Media. https://goodfaithmedia.org/global-christian-population-projected-to-reach-3-3-billion-by-2050/
9. Web site: Status of Global Christianity, 2023, in the Context of 1900–2050. Center for the Study of Global Christianity. 2023.
10. Web site: Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population. 19 December 2011.
11. Web site: The Global Religious Landscape. Christians.. Pew Research Center. 18 December 2012. Pew Research Center.
12. Web site: 2 April 2015 . The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050 . Pew Research Center.
13. Book: Spirit and Power: The Growth and Global Impact of Pentecostalism. 9 September 2013. Oxford University Press Scholarship. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199920570.001.0001. 978-0-19-934563-2. Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world. Miller. Donald E. Kimon H. Sargeant. Richard. Flory.
14. Book: Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods. 9 May 2012. University of California Press Scholarship. 10.1525/california/9780520266612.001.0001. With its remarkable ability to adapt to different cultures, Pentecostalism has become the world's fastest growing religious movement.. Anderson. Allan. Bergunder. Michael. Droogers. Andre. 9780520266612.
15. News: Witnessing The New Reach of Pentecostalism. 3 August 2002. The Washington Post. Pentecostalism is widely recognized by religious scholars as the fastest-growing Christian movement in the world, reaching into many different denominations..
16. Web site: Canadian Pentecostalism. 9 February 2009. McGill–Queen's University Press. One of the most significant transformations in twentieth-century Christianity is the emergence and development of Pentecostalism. With over five hundred million followers, it is the fastest-growing movement in the world. An incredibly diverse movement, it has influenced many sectors of Christianity, flourishing in Africa, Latin America, and Asia and having an equally significant effect on Canada..
17. Book: A. Elwell, Walter. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 2017. 9781493410774. Baker Academic. Pentecostalism arguably has been the fastest growing religious movement in the contemporary world.
18. Web site: Protestantism: The fastest growing religion in the developing world. 18 November 2017. The Manila Times. 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. The Economist. 18 November 2017. The Economists. Pentecostalism grew at 2.2 percent each year, mainly by conversion. Half of developing-world Christians are Pentecostal, evangelical or charismatic..
20. Web site: The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050. 6 June 2016. https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20150429153811/http://www.pewforum.org/files/2015/03/PF_15.04.02_ProjectionsFullReport.pdf. 29 April 2015. dead.
21. Web site: The Changing Global Religious Landscape. 5 April 2017. Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. en-US. 23 April 2020.
22. Web site: United Nations World Population Prospects: 2006 revision, Table A.15. ((United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division)). UN. New York. 2007. 7 December 2009.
23. Book: 15 February 2001. David B.. Barrett. George Thomas. Kurian. Todd M.. Johnson. World Christian Encyclopedia p.360. Oxford University Press USA. 0195079639.
24. Web site: Charles E. Farhadian. 27 November 2020. www.amazon.com.
25. Book: Rambo, Lewis Ray. Understanding Religious Conversion. 1993. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-06515-2. en.
26. Book: 2014. Lewis Ray. Rambo. Charles E.. Farhadian. The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion p.58. Oxford University Press. 9780195338522.
27. Book: 2014. Lewis Ray. Rambo. Charles E.. Farhadian. The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion p.59. Oxford University Press. 9780195338522.
28. The Next Christendom: The Rise of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press. 2002. 270 pp.
29. Web site: Pentecostalism: Massive Global Growth Under the Radar. 9 March 2015. Pulitzer Center. Massive Growth Under the Radar: Each day, 35,000 people are born again through baptism with the Holy Spirit..
30. Web site: Max Weber and Pentecostals in Latin America: The Protestant Ethic, Social Capital and Spiritual Capital Ethic, Social Capital and Spiritual Capital. 9 May 2016. Georgia State University. The spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion (Berger 2009)..
31. Web site: Understanding the rapid rise of Charismatic Christianity in Southeast Asia. 27 October 2017. Singapore Management University.
32. Web site: China plans establishment of Christian theology - China - Chinadaily.com.cn. www.chinadaily.com.cn.
33. Book: Hartch, Todd. The Rebirth of Latin American Christianity. 2014. 9780199365142. 1. Oxford University Press.
34. Book: Yoo. David. Ruth H.. Chung. Religion and spirituality in Korean America. University of Illinois Press. 2008. 978-0-252-07474-5.
35. Web site: Leave China, Study in America, Find Jesus. Han. Zhang. 11 February 2016 .
36. Book: Niiya, Brian. Japanese American History: An A-To-Z Reference from 1868 to the Present. 1993. VNR AG. 28. 9780816026807.
37. Web site: Japanese Americans - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. 17 March 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304064956/http://projects.pewforum.org/2012/07/18/religious-affiliation-of-asian-americans-2/asianamericans_affiliation-9-2/. 4 March 2016. dead.
38. Miller, 2006. pp. 185-186
39. Web site: Why the Chinese government is targeting young Christians in its latest crackdown. 14 May 2018. America magazine. A study of the religious lives of university students in Beijing published in a mainland Chinese academic journal Science and Atheism in 2013 showed Christianity to be the religion that interested students most and the most active on campuses. It concluded there was a "religious fever" in society and "religious forces were infiltrating colleges." With the support of "overseas religious forces," it said, there was a rapid growth in Christianity among university students. It said Christian fellowships on campus mostly refused to succumb to the leadership of the state-backed churches and thus posed "a problem" in the government's administration of religious affairs..
40. Web site: Conversions to Christianity Among Highly Educated Chinese. 14 May 2018. Training leaders.
41. Book: Tan, Chee-beng. After Migration And Religious Affiliation: Religions, Chinese Identities And Transnational Networks. 2014. 9789814590013. XXV. World Scientific. They also point out that more educated migrants and those from Hong Kong are more likely to become Christians than those from mainland China..
42. Web site: Religion and Education in Indonesia. 30 January 2017. Gavin W. Jones. Finally, during this century there has been a rapid growth in the number of Chinese Christians. Very few Chinese were Christians at the turn of the century. Today Christians constitute approximately 10 or 15 percent of the Chinese population in Indonesia, and probably a higher percentage among the young. Conversion of Chinese to Christianity accelerated in the 1960s, especially in East Java, and for Indonesia as a whole the proportion of Chinese who were Catholics rose from 2 percent in 1957 to 6 percent in 19..
43. Book: Taher, Amir. The Persian Night: Iran Under the Khomeinist Revolution. 2020. 9781594034794. 343. Encounter Books. The reason is that a growing number of Iranians, especially the young, are converting to Zoroastrianism or Christianity..
44. Web site: 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. 22 February 2009. Office of the Commissioner-General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, Belgium. P.15: Chiaramonte 2016), that it is young people in particular who convert to Christianity in today's Iran.
45. Book: S. Chin, Clive. The Perception of Christianity as a Rational Religion in Singapore: A Missiological Analysis of Christian Conversione. 2017. 9781498298094. 166. Routledge. This socio-demographic characterizes Christian converts as mostly .. (2) well-educated, (3) belonging in higher-income brackets, (4) switching their religion between ten and twenty-nine years of age.
46. Web site: Religious Revival Among Chinese in Singapore. 14 May 2018. SSA1201 Assignment. Converts to Christianity tend to come from the young, educated, English-speaking Chinese generation.
47. State and Social Christianity in Post-colonial Singapore. 21 April 2010. Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 41308136. Christianity has flourished in post-colonial Singapore, especially attracting conversions from among young, urbanized and English- educated.. Goh. Daniel P. S.. Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 25. 1. 54–89. 10.1355/SJ25-1C. 144235936.
48. Sukman. Jang. 2004. Historical Currents and Characteristics of Korean Protestantism after Liberation. Korea Journal. 44. 4. 133–156.
49. Web site: The Perilous Path from Muslim to Christian. 12 June 2021. The National Interest. Reports of widespread conversions of Muslims to Christianity come from regions as disparate as Algeria, Albania, Syria, and Kurdistan. Countries with the largest indigenous numbers include Algeria, 380,000; Ethiopia, 400,000; Iran, 500,000 (versus only 500 in 1979); Nigeria, 600,000; and Indonesia, an astounding 6,500,000..
50. Web site: The Perilous Path from Muslim to Christian. 12 June 2021. The National Interest. MBBs also live in the West, with the United States hosting by far the most (450,000) and Bulgaria the most in Europe (45,000)..
51. Book: Anderson, Allan. An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity. 2013. 9781107033993. 145. Cambridge University Press. estimated that over 2 million Javanese Muslims became Christians between 1965 and 1971, and Pentecostal churches gained the most members.
52. Book: Samuel Shah, Timothy. Christianity and Freedom: Volume 2, Contemporary Perspectives. 2016. 9781316565247. Cambridge University Press. Between 1966 and 1976, some 2 million ethnic Javanese from nominally Islamic backgrounds converted to Christianity.
53. Book: Madinier, Rémy. The Politics of Religion in Indonesia: Syncretism, Orthodoxy, and Religious Contention in Java and Bali. 2011. 9781136726408. 86. Routledge. Between 1966 and 1976, almost two million ethnic Javanese, most from abangan Islamic backgrounds, converted to Christianity..
54. Book: Bresnan, John. Indonesia: The Great Transition. 2005. 9780742540118. 107. Rowman & Littlefield. Between 1966 and 1976, almost 2 million ethnic Javanese, most from nominally Islamic backgrounds, converted to Christianity. Another 250,000 to 400,000 became Hindu..
55. Book: P. Daniels, Timothy. Sharia Dynamics: Islamic Law and Sociopolitical Processes. 2017. 9783319456928. 102. Springer. almost two million nominal Muslims to convert to Christianity.
56. Book: Madan, T. N.. Sociological Traditions: Methods and Perspectives in the Sociology of India. 2011. 9788132107699. 53. SAGE Publications India. Simultaneously, a considerable number of muslims (about 2 million) converted to Christianity and Hinduism, a most unique event..
57. Book: L. Berger, Peter. The Limits Of Social Cohesion: Conflict And Mediation In Pluralist Societies. 2018. 9780429975950. 53. Routledge. Some 2 million nominally Islamic Javanese reacted against the violence of their Muslim brethren by converting to Christianity.
58. Web site: Religious Conversion and Sharia Law. 6 June 2007. Council on Foreign Relations. In the West, experts estimate thousands of Muslims switch to Christianity every year but keep their conversions secret for fear of retribution. "Converts from Islam, especially those who become involved in Christian ministries, often use assumed names, or only their first names, in order to protect themselves and their families," writes Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a Washington-based terrorism analyst in Commentary..
59. Web site: Vatican: Priest numbers show steady, moderate increase. Catholic News Service. 2 March 2009. 9 March 2008.
60. Froehle, pp. 4–5
61. News: Bazar. Emily. Immigrants Make Pilgrimage to Pope. USA Today. 16 April 2008. 3 May 2008.
62. Web site: Bazar. Emily. Immigrants Make Pilgrimage to Pope. USA Today. 16 April 2008. 3 May 2008.
63. Web site: World's Catholic population steady. Catholic Culture.org. 13 May 2013. 13 May 2013.
64. "Catholic numbers grow in Scandinavia", The Tablet, 20 September 2014, 31.
65. Web site: Number of Catholics on the Rise. Zenit News Agency. 27 April 2010. 2 May 2010. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100727041154/http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-29058. 27 July 2010. . For greater details on numbers of Catholics and priests and their distribution by continent and for changes between 2000 and 2008, see Web site: Annuario Statistico della Chiesa dell'anno 2008. Holy See Press Office. 27 April 2010. 2 May 2010. (in Italian)
66. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3.HTM Code of Canon Law, canon 11.
67. Web site: – Vatican: Islam Surpasses Roman Catholicism as World's Largest Religion | Europe News. Fox News Channel. 30 March 2008. 1 April 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20090918225640/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343336,00.html. 18 September 2009. dead.
68. Ross Douthat, "Fear of a Black Continent", The New York Times, 21 October 2018, 9.
69. Web site: The Future of the Global Muslim Population. 27 January 2011. Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project.
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72. Hillerbrand, Hans J., "Encyclopedia of Protestantism: 4-volume Set", p. 1815, "Observers carefully comparing all these figures in the total context will have observed the even more startling finding that for the first time ever in the history of Protestantism, Wider Protestants will by 2050 have become almost exactly as numerous as Roman Catholics - each with just over 1.5 billion followers, or 17 percent of the world, with Protestants growing considerably faster than Catholics each year."
73. Book: Melton, J. Gordon. Encyclopedia of Protestantism. 22 October 2005. Infobase Publishing. 9780816069835. Google Books.
74. Web site: Status of Global Christianity, 2024, in the Context of 1900–2050 . Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary . 23 May 2024. Protestants: 625,606,000; Independents: 421,689,000; Unaffiliated Christians: 123,508,000.
75. Web site: Pewforum: Christianity (2010). 2 May 2020. https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20130909201533/http://www.pewforum.org/files/2011/12/Christianity-fullreport-web.pdf. 9 September 2013. dead.
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81. 33.39% of 7.174 billion world population (under the section "People and Society") Web site: World. 7 December 2022 . CIA world facts.
82. Web site: Major Religions Ranked by Size. https://web.archive.org/web/20000816004118/http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html. usurped. 16 August 2000. Adherents.com. 5 May 2009.
83. Web site: ANALYSIS. Global Christianity. Pewforum.org. 19 December 2011. 17 August 2012.
84. News: Study: Christianity growth soars in Africa. USA Today. 14 February 2015. 20 December 2011.
85. The Battle for Latin America's Soul. 24 June 2001. Time. 14 February 2015. Richard N.. Ostling.
86. Web site: In China, Protestantism's Simplicity Yields More Converts Than Catholicism. 28 March 2012. International Business Times. 14 February 2015.
87. Web site: Evangelicals rise in Latin America. Chris. Arsenault. 14 February 2015.
88. Book: The Teachings of Modern Protestantism on Law, Politics, and Human Nature. 9780231142632. 14 February 2015. Witte. John. Alexander. Frank S.. 2007. Columbia University Press .
89. Book: Religion in a Secularizing Society. 9004126228. 14 February 2015. Halman. Loek. Riis. Ole. 2003. BRILL .
90. Book: Religious Newcomers and the Nation State. 9789059723986. 14 February 2015. Sengers. Erik. Sunier. Thijl. 2010. Eburon Uitgeverij B.V. .
91. Web site: Religious Beliefs of the population residing in Spain. Spain Justice Ministry's Observatory of Religious Pluralism . December 22, 2023.
92. Web site: A surge of evangelicals in Spain, fueled by Latin Americans. The Independent . January 4, 2022 . December 22, 2023.
93. Web site: Moscow Church Spearheads Russia Revival. 14 February 2015.
94. Web site: Protestantism in Postsoviet Russia: An Unacknowledged Triumph.
95. Web site: Growing Protestants, Catholics Draw Ire. Felix. Corley. Geraldine. Fagan. ChristianityToday.com. 10 June 2002 . 14 February 2015.
96. News: Staff. The List: The World's Fastest-Growing Religions. Foreign Policy. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. May 2007. Christianity. Growth rate: 1.38 percent. Adherents: 2.2 billion. Behind the trend: High birthrates and conversions in the global South..
97. Web site: Growth Rate of Christianity & Islam: Which will be the dominant religion in the future?.
98. News: The List: The World's Fastest-Growing Religions. Foreign Policy. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. May 2007. 6 March 2017. 11 July 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180711181533/http://www.bellbookandcandlepublications.com/greenwoodsvillage/gor/islam.php. dead.
99. News: What is the fastest growing religion in the world? A Secularist Evaluation.. FastestGrowingReligion.tk. 2008. 12 September 2008.
100. http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/ World Religions Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050 (2015). Retrieved 18 September 2016.
101. http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/ World Religions Population :Growth Projections, 2010-2050 (2015). Retrieved 18 September 2016.
102. Web site: Vatican - Catholic Church Statistics 2018 - Agenzia Fides. Fides. Agenzia. fides.org. 8 February 2019.
103. Book: R.V, Dmitriev. African Studies in Russia: Works of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yearbook 2014-2016. 2018. 9781988391069. 60. MeaBooks Inc.
104. Web site: Kabylia: Christian Churches Closed by Algerian Authorities. 28 May 2019. Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Since 2000, thousands of Algerian Muslims have put their faith in Christ. Algerian officials estimate the number of Christians at 50,000, but others say it could be twice that number..
105. Web site: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 30 June 2015. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. there is an estimated 20,000 to 100,000 evangelical Christians in Algeria, who practice their faith in mainly unregistered churches in the Kabyle region. 27 October 2022. 15 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210715132018/https://www.justice.gov/eoir/file/826846/download. dead.
106. Book: P S Rowe, Paul. Routledge Handbook of Minorities in the Middle East. 2018. 9781317233794. 133. Routledge.
107. Web site: U.S. Report on Religious Freedom in Middle East. 30 May 2013. Wilson Center. some Algerian Muslims who converted to Christianity kept a low profile due to concern for their personal safety and potential legal and social problem.
108. Book: Chapman, Colin. Christians in the Middle East – Past, Present and Future. 2012. 9781608991167. 5. Sage Publications, Inc.. many as 20,000 to 40,000 Algerians, mostly Berbers, who have become Christian.
109. Web site: Echorouk Online - A postal executive in Tlemcen province under security investigation into the shady circumstances surrounding his decision to embrace Christianity. 3 January 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110724173825/http://www.echoroukonline.com/eng/algeria/11611-a-postal-executive-in-tlemcen-province-under-security-investigation-into-the-shady-circumstances-surrounding-his-decision-to-embrace-christianity.html. 24 July 2011. dead.
110. • Sadek Lekdja, Christianity in Kabylie, Radio France Internationale, 7 mai 2001
111. Johnstone. Patrick. Miller. Duane Alexander. amp. 2015. Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. 11. 10. 1–19. registration.
112. Book: Carnes, Nat. Al-Maghred, the Barbary Lion: A Look at Islam. 2012. 9781475903423. 253. University of Cambridge Press. . In all an estimated 40,000 Moroccans have converted to Christianity.
113. Web site: 'House-Churches' and Silent Masses —The Converted Christians of Morocco Are Praying in Secret – VICE News. 23 March 2015. Converted Moroccans — most of them secret worshippers, of whom there are estimated to be anywhere between 5,000 and 40,000 —.
114. Web site: Morocco's 'hidden' Christians to push for religious freedom. 30 January 2017. AfricanNews. There are no official statistics, but leaders say there are about 50,000 Moroccan Christians, most of them from the Protestant Evangelical tradition..
115. Web site: MOROCCO2019INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT. 30 January 2019. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT. 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...
116. Web site: Morocco's Christian converts emerge from the shadows. 30 April 2017. Time of Israel. 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..
117. Web site: 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). United Nations High Commissioner for. Refugees. Refworld.
118. Web site: International Religious Freedom Report for 2011 – Morocco. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
119. Web site: 'House-Churches' and Silent Masses —The Converted Christians of Morocco Are Praying in Secret. vice.com. 23 March 2015 .
120. Web site: Maroc: La conversion de musulmans au christianisme soulève la colère dans le pays.
121. https://web.archive.org/web/20140907235017/http://www.ossin.org/marocco/convertiti-marocchini-ain-leuh-brother-rachid.html Osservatorio Internazionale: "La tentazione di Cristo"
122. Web site: 19 December 2011. Global Christianity: Regional Distribution of Christians. Pew Research Center. 11 August 2013.
123. Web site: Religious Demographic Profiles – Pew Forum. https://web.archive.org/web/20100421200729/http://pewforum.org/world-affairs/countries/?countryID=150. 21 April 2010.
124. https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90222.htm International Religious Freedom Report 2007: Tunisia
125. Book: Newman, Barbara. Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil. 2005. 9780345481856. Random House Publishing Group. Many of the minority of Muslims who came in this wave married Argentinean women and converted to Catholicism.
126. World Jewish Population, 2013
127. News: Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths. 19 July 2012. Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 15 May 2018. en-US.
128. Web site: How many Jews are there in the United States?. Pew Research Center. 2 October 2013 .
129. Web site: A Portrait of Jewish Americans: Chapter 1: Population Estimates. Pew Research Center. October 2013 .
130. News: American-Jewish Population Rises to 6.8 Million. haaretz.
131. Web site: Jewish Americans in 2020. 11 May 2021 . Pew Research Center. 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..
132. Web site: Islam gains about as many converts as it loses in U.S.. 26 January 2018 .
133. Web site: Why Are Millions of Muslims Becoming Christian?. 13 February 2017. 26 July 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170726052459/http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/why-are-millions-of-muslims-becoming-christian. dead.
134. Book: Scott, Rob. Mount Taylor. 2017. 9781387230914. University of Tasmania Press. 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..
135. Web site: American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008. Barry A.. Kosmin. Ariela. Keysar. 2009. Trinity College. Hartford, Connecticut, USA. 1 April 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090407053149/http://b27.cc.trincoll.edu/weblogs/AmericanReligionSurvey-ARIS/reports/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf. 7 April 2009.
136. Web site: ((USSD Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor)). 2009. International Religious Freedom Report 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091130031916/http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2009/127362.htm. dead. 30 November 2009. 6 March 2010.
137. Book: A El Shafie, Majed. Freedom Fighter: One Man's Fight for One Free World. 2012. 9780768487732. Destiny Image Publishers. 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...
138. Book: The 2011 International Religious Freedom Report. 2018. 9780160905346. 86. University of California Press. 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.
139. Web site: 5,000 Azerbaijanis adopted Christianity. Day.az. 7 July 2007. Russian. 30 January 2012.
140. Web site: Christian Missionaries Becoming Active in Azerbaijan. Tehran Radio. 19 June 2011. Azerbaijani. 12 August 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20140219223500/http://azeri.irib.ir/tehliller/item/148029-xristian-missioner-t%C9%99riq%C9%99tl%C9%99r-ar-da-aktivl%C9%99sir?tmpl=component&print=1. 19 February 2014. dead.
141. Book: Aras, Bülent. Oil and Geopolitics in the Caspian Sea Region. 1999. 9780275963958. 166. Greenwood Publishing Group. According to Iranian sources in Baku, Western "religious front associations" have converted some 5,000 Azerbaijanis to various Christian evangelical denominations since 1991.
142. Book: Monnier, F. le. Rivista di studi politici internazionali. 2009. 9780275963958. 69. Facoltà di scienze politiche "Cesare Alfieri. the 1990s these front organizations succeeded in converting some 5,000 Azeris to various Christian evangelical.
143. Khalil. Mohammad Hassan. Bilici. Mucahit. January 2007. Conversion Out of Islam: A Study of Conversion Narratives of Former Muslims. The Muslim World. 97. 111–124. 10.1111/j.1478-1913.2007.00161.x. 2027.42/72141. deepblue.lib.umich.edu. free.
144. Web site: The treatment of Christians in Bangladesh. 23 November 2006. Refugee Review Tribunal: Australia. 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...
145. Web site: Country Policy and Information Note - Bangladesh: Religious minorities and atheists. 23 October 2018. Home Office. it is estimated that as many as 91,000 Muslims across Bangladesh have converted to Christianity in the last six years.. 27 October 2022. 15 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210715132009/https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1101896/download. dead.
146. Web site: 《中国保障宗教信仰自由的政策和实践》白皮书（全文）. https://web.archive.org/web/20180508020010/http://www.scio.gov.cn/zfbps/ndhf/37884/Document/1626520/1626520.htm. dead. 8 May 2018. 3 April 2018. 2 May 2020.
147. Chinese Conversion to Evangelical Christianity: The Importance of Social and Cultural Contexts. 20 January 2017. Oxford University Press. 3711910. Yang. Fenggang. Sociology of Religion. 59. 3. 237–257. 10.2307/3711910.
148. Web site: Christianity in China. Council on Foreign Relations.
149. Book: R. Burrow, William. Redemption And Dialogue. 2009. 9781608991167. 201. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
150. Web site: Indians say it is important to respect all religions, but major religious groups see little in common and want to live separately. 29 June 2021. Pew Research Center. For Christians, however, there are some net gains from conversion.
151. Book: 15 February 2001. David B.. Barrett. George Thomas. Kurian. Todd M.. Johnson. World Christian Encyclopedia p.374. Oxford University Press USA. 0195079639.
152. Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census. Duane A.. Miller. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. academia.edu.
153. Web site: In Indonesia, Lunar New Year an old practice for young Christians.. 15 August 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111128130042/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZ68H857ADsOp81TePJQmLhShESw. 28 November 2011. dead.
154. Web site: Opinion | In Indonesia, the Chinese go to church (Published 2006). Roderick. Brazier. 27 April 2006. The New York Times.
155. News: . 7 February 2008. In Indonesia, Lunar New Year an old practice for young Christians . 15 August 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111128130042/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZ68H857ADsOp81TePJQmLhShESw. 28 November 2011. dead.
156. Web site: 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. 22 February 2009. Office of the Commissioner-General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, Belgium. 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. Web site: Iranians Turn Away from the Islamic Republic. 22 January 2020. Journal of Democracy.
158. Web site: 'Our second mother': Iran's converted Christians find sanctuary in Germany. 12 May 2014. The Guardian. 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. Web site: 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom: Iran. 12 May 2019. United States Department of State. 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. Web site: Are Iran's Christian converts at greater risk after Soleimani's demise?. 7 February 2018. The Jerusalem Post. 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. Web site: Iran: Christians and Christian converts - Department of Justice. 20 February 2020. Home Office. 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. 27 October 2022. 1 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201101033507/https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1253351/download. dead.
162. Web site: Iranians Turn Away from the Islamic Republic. 20 January 2020. Journal of Democracy.
163. Web site: Iran's Christian Boom. 29 June 2021. JewishPress. 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. Web site: America Must Focus on Religious Persecution against Iranian Christian Converts. 3 August 2020. providence. 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. Web site: America Must Focus on Religious Persecution against Iranian Christian Converts. 3 August 2020. providence. Recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between one million and three million..
166. Web site: Religion and Religious Freedom. 19 March 2015. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402175628/http://www.222ministries.org/iran/iran-today/religion-and-religious-freedom/. 2 April 2015.
167. Web site: Christianity's long history in the margins. Japan Times. 24 February 2009. Mariko. Kato. 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. Web site: Mission Network News. Christians use English to reach Japanese youth. 3 September 2007. The population of Japan is less than one-percent Christian. 27 December 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20100611060608/http://mnnonline.org/article/10318. 11 June 2010. dead.
169. Book: Transactions, transgressions, transformations: American culture in Western Europe and Japan. 62. Berghahn Books. 2000. 1-57181-108-7. followers of the Christian faith constitute only about a half percent of the Japanese population. Heide Fehrenbach, Uta G. Poiger.
170. Book: W. Robinson, David. International Handbook of Protestant Education. 2012. 9789400723870. 521. Springer Science & Business Media. A 2006 Gallup survey, however, is the largest to date and puts the number at 6%, which is much higher than its previous surveys. It notes a major increase among Japanese youth professing Christ..
171. Web site: After fatalism, Japan opens to faith. mercatornet. 17 October 2007. 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.. 27 October 2022. 20 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210720225309/https://mercatornet.com/after_fatalism_japan_opens_to_faith/6222/. dead.
172. Book: R. McDermott, Gerald. Handbook of Religion: A Christian Engagement with Traditions, Teachings, and Practices. 2014. 9781441246004. Baker Academic.
173. Book: Radford, David. Religious Identity and Social Change: Explaining Christian conversion in a Muslim world. 2015. 9781317691716. Routledge. 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.
174. Book: Akçalı, Pınar. Politics, Identity and Education in Central Asia: Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. 2013. 9781135627676. Routledge.
175. Web site: Religion and the Secular State in Kyrgyzstan. 20 June 2020. The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies. P.25: By the early 2000s, some scholars estimated the total number of Kyrgyz converts to Christianity to about 25,000.
176. Web site: What is Himpun about?. Ahmad Farouk Musa. Mohd Radziq Jalaluddin. Ahmad Fuad Rahmat. Edry Faizal Eddy Yusuf. 22 October 2011. The Star. 16 December 2011.
177. Book: RChinyong Liow, Joseph. Religion and Nationalism in Southeast Asia. 2016. 9781107167728. 142. Cambridge University Press. Harussani Zakaria, publicly fulminated that up to 260,000 Muslims in Malaysia had left the faith and converted to Christianity.
178. Web site: Better-educated S'pore residents look to religion. asiaone.com.
179. Book: Nai-Chiu Poon, Michael. Christian Movements in Southeast Asia: A Theological Exploration. 2010. 9789814305150. 60–61. Trinity Theological College (Singapore). 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..
180. Web site: Presidential Election in South Korea Highlights Influence of Christian Community. 12 December 2007. Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project.
181. Web site: The Muslim refugees converting to Christianity 'to find safety'. 30 January 2017. Telegraph.
182. Web site: Christianity grows in Syrian town once besieged by Islamic State. 16 April 2019. Reuters. A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani.
183. Granli. Elisabet. Religious conversion in Syria : Alawite and Druze believers. University of Oslo. 2011.
184. Book: Abdullaev, Kamoludin. Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan. 2018. 370. 9781538102527. Rowman & Littlefield. In 2016, the government estimated the number of Christian converts at up to 3,000 persons..
185. Web site: Topix. topix.com.
186. Web site: Fearing a new holy empire: Just when Turks are worried about Christians, here comes the Pope. 4 December 2006. Maclean's. 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.. 27 October 2022. 19 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210719121102/https://archive.macleans.ca/article/2006/12/4/fearing-a-new-holy-empire. dead.
187. Web site: International Institute for Religious Freedom: Single Post. Iirf.eu. 11 August 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20170729173518/http://www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=178&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews&. 29 July 2017. dead.
188. Book: report, MRG international. A Quest for Equality: Minorities in Turkey. 2007. 9781904584636. 13. Minority Rights Group International. 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...
189. Book: White, Jenny. Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks: Updated Edition. 2014. 9781400851256. 82. Princeton University Press. a number that vastly exceeds the size of present-day Turkish-speaking Protestant churches, of whose 3,000 members are converts from Islam.
190. Web site: Christian Converts Live In Fear in Intolerant Turkey. 23 April 2007. Der Spiegel. 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..
191. Web site: Jonathan. Luxmoore. Turkish Protestants still face 'long path' to religious freedom. The Christian Century. 4 March 2011. 11 August 2015.
192. Web site: Turkey - Christians in eastern Turkey worried despite church opening. Hürriyet Daily News. 20 July 2011. 11 August 2015.
193. Book: Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks - Jenny White. 27 April 2014. 9781400851256. 11 August 2015. White. Jenny. Princeton University Press .
194. Web site: Turkey: Protestant church closed down | Church in Chains - Ireland :: An Irish voice for suffering, persecuted Christians Worldwide. Churchinchains.ie. 3 October 2014. 11 August 2015. 22 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160822005706/http://churchinchains.ie/node/743. dead.
195. Book: Mvan Gorder, Christian. Muslim-Christian Relations in Central Asia. 2018. 9781135971694. 17. Routledge.
196. Web site: Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 2005 – Vietnam. U.S. Department of State. 30 June 2005. 11 March 2007.
197. Web site: The Perilous Path from Muslim to Christian. 12 June 2021. The National Interest. Reports of widespread conversions of Muslims to Christianity come from regions as disparate as Algeria, Albania, Syria, and Kurdistan..
198. Web site: GOD IN THE "LAND OF THE MERCEDES" THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN ALBANIA SINCE 1990. 22 November 2007. Nathalie CLAYER. P.19: A part of the Muslims in emigration are directly or indirectly induced to convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy.
199. Book: Blumi. Isa. Krasniqi. Gëzim. Albanians' Islam. 480–482. Cesari. Jocelyne. The Oxford Handbook of European Islam. 2014. Oxford. Oxford University Press. 9780191026409. https://books.google.com/books?id=82PDBAAAQBAJ&q=bektashi+census+2011+disputed&pg=PA480.
200. Book: De Rapper, Gilles. Better than Muslims, Not as Good as Greeks: Emigration as Experienced and Imagined by the Albanian Christians of Lunxhëri. 210. King. Russell. Mai. Nicola. Schwandner-Sievers. Stephanie. The New Albanian Migration. 2005. Brighton-Portland. Sussex Academic. 9781903900789. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00165725/document.
201. Book: Kokkali, Ifigeneia. Albanian Immigrants in the Greek City: Spatial 'Invisibility' and Identity Management as a Strategy of Adaptation. 129, 134–135. Vermeulen. Hans. Baldwin-Edwards. Martin. Van Boeschoten. Riki. Migration in the Southern Balkans. From Ottoman Territory to Globalized Nation States. 2015. Cham. Springer Open. 9783319137193. https://www.academia.edu/12755084.
202. Book: P. Chall, Leo. Sociological Abstracts. 1998. 3844. Michigan University Press. In 1990, as the situation began to worsen, many Muslim Albanians contemplated a mass conversion to Catholicism.
203. Web site: In Europe, many Muslims renounce Islam, embrace Christianity: Report. 20 November 2014. oneindia.com.
204. Web site: Structure of the population by confession. NSI. 6 June 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20091225163107/http://www.nsi.bg/Census/StrReligion.htm. 25 December 2009. dead.
205. Web site: Ethnic minority communities. NSI. 6 June 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170824222635/http://www.nccedi.government.bg/page.php?category=92&id=247. 24 August 2017. dead.
206. Web site: Urban culture, religious conversion, and crossing ethnic fluidity among the Bulgarian Muslims ("Pomaks"). 5 March 2015. New Bulgarian University. 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.
207. Web site: Islam in Denmark – an historical overview. 4 April 2019. Nordic.info. 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..
208. News: Why Are So Many Muslim Refugees in Europe Suddenly Finding Jesus?. 25 May 2016. 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.. Visser. Nadette De.
209. http://www.ifop.com/media/pressdocument/43-1-document_file.pdf IFOP press document
210. Web site: Zee News: Latest News, Live Breaking News, Today News, India Political News Updates. Zee News.
211. Book: The Encyclopedia of Christianity: J-O. 9780802824158. Fahlbusch. Erwin. Bromiley. Geoffrey William. Lochman. Jan Milic. Mbiti. John. Pelikan. Jaroslav. Vischer. Lukas. Barrett. David B.. 2003. Wm. B. Eerdmans .
212. Book: M. Davis, Stephen. Rise of French Laicite: French Secularism from the Reformation to the Twenty-first Century. 2020. 9781725264090. 199. Wipf and Stock Publishers. 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..
213. Book: A. West, Barbara. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. 2010. 3. 9781438119137. Infobase Publishing. more than 20,000 Abkhazian Muslims converted to Christianity.
214. Web site: 'Our second mother': Iran's converted Christians find sanctuary in Germany. Liana Aghajanian for the Tehran. Bureau. 12 May 2014. The Guardian.
215. Book: Özyürek, Esra. Convert Alert: German Muslims and Turkish Christians as Threats to Security in the New Europe. 2008. 9781725264090. 76. Cambridge University Press. gained through ethnographic research with Turkish and Kurdish converts to Christianity in both Turkey and German..
216. Book: Hann, Chris. The Postsocialist Religious Question: Faith and Power in Central Asia and East-Central Europe. 2006. 9783825899042. LIT Verlag Münster.
217. Book: Wilfred, Felix. The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia. 2014. 9780199329069. Oxford University Press.
218. Web site: Out of hiding, some Kosovars embrace Christianity. Fatos. Bytyci. 29 September 2008. Reuters.
219. Web site: Out of hiding, some Kosovars embrace Christianity. 29 September 2008. Reuters.
220. News: Muslim Kosovars rediscover their long-forgotten Roman Catholic roots. 6 May 2015. Washington post.
221. Web site: Religious communities and life stance communities. ssb.no.
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223. Web site: Iranian refugees turn to Christianity in the Netherlands. 25 August 2017. BBC. 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..
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225. http://sreda.org/en/arena Arena - Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia
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230. Book: Mostafavi Mobasher, Mohsen. The Iranian Diaspora: Challenges, Negotiations, and Transformations. 2018. 9781477316672. 82. University of Texas Press. 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.
231. Web site: Iranian Christians in Leeds: xperiences of Church Membership. 17 September 2018. University of Leeds. 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.