China’s Christian population appears to have stopped growing after rising rapidly in the 1980s and ’90s
Between 2010 and 2018, the share of Chinese adults who identify with Christianity remained stable at about 2%.
Conrad Hackett is associate director of research and senior demographer at Pew Research Center. His expertise is in international religious demography, sociology of religion, and how religion relates to characteristics including gender, fertility and education. Hackett received his doctorate from Princeton University’s Department of Sociology and Office of Population Research and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the University of Texas at Austin’s Population Research Center. He also earned two graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is an author of The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050, Religion and Education Around the World, The Global Religious Landscape, The Gender Gap in Religion Around the World, Global Christianity, The Global Catholic Population and various other studies of religious demography. Hackett frequently presents demographic research at scholarly conferences in the United States and abroad. He has discussed global religion with numerous media outlets, including BBC, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, the Financial Times, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
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Is China a religious country or not? It’s a tricky question to answer
Based on formal religious identity, China is the least religious country in the world – with just 10% of Chinese adults self-identifying with a religion.
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Global population skews male, but UN projects parity between sexes by 2050
The number of males has exceeded the number of females since the mid-1960s. But by 2050, the worldwide sex ratio is expected to even out.
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Global population projected to exceed 8 billion in 2022; half live in just seven countries
China has the world’s largest population (1.426 billion), but India (1.417 billion) is expected to claim this title next year.
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Education of Muslim women is limited by economic conditions, not religion
Muslim societies have gained a reputation in recent decades for failing to adequately educate women. But a new analysis of Pew Research Center data on educational attainment and religion suggests that economics, not religion, is the key factor limiting the education of Muslim women.
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Meditation is common across many religious groups in the U.S.
Substantial shares of Americans of nearly all religious groups – as well as those who have no religious affiliation – say they meditate at least once a week.
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5 facts about the Muslim population in Europe
In the coming decades, the Muslim share of Europe’s population is expected to grow – and could more than double. Read five facts about the Muslim population in Europe.
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Why Muslims are the world’s fastest-growing religious group
While the world’s population is projected to grow 32% in the coming decades, the number of Muslims is expected to increase by 70% – from 1.8 billion in 2015 to nearly 3 billion in 2060.
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Christians remain world’s largest religious group, but they are declining in Europe
Though Christians make up nearly a third of Earth’s 7.3 billion people, the number of Christians in Europe is in decline.
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What is each country’s second-largest religious group?
While either Christians or Muslims make up the largest religious group in nine-in-ten nations around the globe, the religiously unaffiliated rank second in size in most of the Americas and Europe, as well as in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
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