Growth of Christianity in the World 2000

Christianity is the largest religion in the world, with 2.5 billion adherents, or 31.2% of the total world population in 2015. The explosive growth of Christianity outside the West has made it the fastest growing global religion, and it is predicted that by 2050 there will be 3 billion Christians worldwide, of whom only 20% will be non-Hispanic whites. For centuries Christianity has been shaped by a largely European culture. But today the religion has become geographically diverse and is re-being revivified by new expressions of traditional Christian belief in Africa, Latin America and Asia. As Christianity continues to expand apace in the southern hemisphere the traditional heartlands of this world faith, in particular Europe, are seeing a decline. Secularization, which is a specific and local phenomenon, not a generic and global one, has been gathering pace. Europe is no longer predominantly Christian as societies become increasingly globalized, multicultural and multi-faith. There is also evidence of decline in the United States. The West offers powerful values, but they are largely “post religious”: tolerance, democracy, autonomy and human rights.