Global Christian Decline: New Data Exposes Alarming Trend Worldwide

A newly released map shows a decline in the number of nations where Christians are in the majority.

While most countries still boast Christian majorities, there was a noteworthy decline from 2010 to 2020, according to data just published by the Pew Research Center, which found the U.K., France, Uruguay, and Australia no longer qualify as majority Christian countries.

As of 2020, Christians remained the majority in 120 of 201 nations and territories analyzed, a decline from 124 in 2010. Statistically, that means Christian-majority countries accounted for 60% of all countries surveyed as opposed to 62% just 10 years earlier.

Over a decade, the Christian-identified populations in the U.K., France, Uruguay, and Australia dipped below 50%, with the percentage of those identifying as religiously unaffiliated ticking upward.

Notably, this shift makes Uruguay the first country in the Americas to no longer boast a Christian majority. Fifty-two percent of its population is now religiously unaffiliated and only 44% is Christian. In the U.K., France, and Australia, no one religious group holds a clear majority.

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Two other nations — the Netherlands and New Zealand — joined the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated during the same period of time. They all joined a group of seven other countries that were already religiously unaffiliated by 2010: China, North Korea, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Macao, and Japan.

As of 2020, Christians represented 29% of the world’s population but were the majority in 60% of countries. While Christianity remains the most geographically widespread religion, its share of the global population is dwarfed by the number of countries where Christians make up the majority.

Conversely, other major world religions — like Islam and Hinduism — have majorities in fewer countries, making them more closely aligned with their overall shares of the global population. Aside from Christianity, other religions are more geographically tethered to certain parts of the world.

While Christianity remains statistically widespread, its influence is waning in parts of the world. This, according to Pew, is a continuation of a growing global trend toward religious disaffiliation, chiefly in countries that have historically held majority Christian populations.

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