The top 20 countries where Christianity is growing the fastest
I’ve just stumbled on this report from the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity.
They identified the top 20 countries that have the highest percentage Christianity Average Annual Growth Rate (AAGR). The number of years for the number of Christians to double, based on the Average Annual Growth Rate has also been calculated.
Notice a few things:
- 19 of the countries in the top 20 are in Asia and Africa.
- 11 countries on the top 20 list are Muslim majority countries.
- not a single country from Europe, Northern America or Latin America makes the top 20 list
- the highest Christian growth rates are found among all major non-Christian religious groups: Hindus, Non-Religious, Buddhists, Muslims and Ethno-religionists (Benin and South Sudan)?
- the majority of the top 20 countries are clustered in three areas: Eastern Asia, Western Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
I’m amazed by the figures out of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Bahrain,Yemen and Kuwait. Obviously the percentage increase is off a small base. Does anyone know if this growth is among Arabs or is it among migrant workers?
An interesting omission is Iran. I keep hearing stories of Iranians coming to Christ both in Iran and among the Iranian diaspora. Perhaps the growth has picked up since the report was written.
There is also some amazing growth among the people of north India. I’d like to see a list of the top 50 countries.
(Thanks to Grant Morrison for the heads up.)
UPDATE: Thanks to reader Tomas for providing this link to more details from the report. Table 3 shows the impact of immigration on the growth of Christianity in Arab Muslim countries. So some good news, but the figures look much better than they are.
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