According to a just released report on Pew Research Center’s original population growth projections for religious groups, in the next half century or so, Christianity’s long reign as the world’s largest religion may come to an end. Indeed, Muslims will grow more than twice as fast as the overall world population between 2015 and 2060 and, in the second half of this century, will likely surpass Christians as the world’s largest religious group.

       While 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. In 2015, Muslims made up 24.1% of the global population. Forty five years later, they are expected to make up more than three in ten the world’s people (31.1%).
In 2010, Muslims made up 23.2 per cent of the global population. Four decades later, they are expected to make up about three- in-ten of the world’s people (29.7%).

        The main reasons for Islam’s growth ultimately involve simple demographics. To begin with, Muslims have more children than

members of the seven other major religious groups analyzed in the study. Muslim women have an average of 2.9 children, significantly above the next  highest group (Christians at 2.6) and the average of all non-Muslims (2.2). In all major regions where there is asizable Muslim population, Muslim fertility exceeds non-Muslim fertility.

       Muslims have the youngest median age (24 in 2015) of all major religious groups, more than seven years younger than the median age of non- Muslims (32).

       A larger share of Muslims will soon be at the point in their lives when people begin having children. This combined with high fertility rates, will accelerate Muslim population growth.

       More than a third of Muslims are concentrated in Africa and the Middle East, regions that are projected to have the biggest population increases. But even within these high growth regions- as well as others- Muslims are projected to grow faster than members of other groups.  For example, Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa, on average, are younger

and have higher fertility than the overall population of the region. In fact, Muslims are expected to grow as a percentage of every region except Latin America and the Caribbean, where relatively few Muslims live. 

      The same dynamics hold true in many countries where Muslims live in large numbers alongside other religious groups. For Example, India’s  number of Muslims  is growing at a faster rate than the country’s majority Hindu population, and is projected to rise from 14.9% of India’s 2015 population to 19.45 (or 333 million people) in 2060. And while there were similar numbers of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria as of 2015, Muslims have high fertility there and are expected to grow to a solid majority of Nigeria’s population (60.5%) in 2060.

      Meanwhile,  religious switching which is expected to hinder the growth Christians by an estimated 72 million between 2015 and 2060 – is not expected to have a negative net impact on Muslim population growth.

      In the US, Christians will decline from more than three quarters of the population in 2010 to two thirds in 2050, with corresponding rises of religious ‘nones’ as well as Muslims, Hindus and others. At midcentury, Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion in the US: Muslims are projected to be more numerous than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of Religion. 

Buddhism is the only faith that is    

not  expected to increase its followers, due to an ageing population and stable fertility rates in Buddhist countries such as China, Japan and Thailand.

     Many consider this population growth as a threat. Following the Killings in Paris, many European countries are concerned about the growth of Muslim Communities in their nations. According to the statistics, Germany and France have the largest Muslim populations among European Union Member countries. As of 2010, there were 4.8 million Muslims in Germany (5.8% of the country’s population) and 4.7 million Muslims in France (7.5%). In Europe overall, however, Russia’s population of 14 million Muslims (10%) is the largest on the continent.

       But the views of Muslims vary widely across European countries. According to the survey conducted by Pew research Center, it is found that in eastern and southern Europe, negative views prevailed. However the majority of respondents in UK, France, Sweden and the Netherlands gave Muslims a favorable rating. Views about Muslims are tied to Ideology.

While 47% of Germans on the political right give Muslims an unfavorable rating, just 17% on the left and right is also roughly 30 percentage points in Italy and Greece

     Even in the midst of Ghar Wapsi the Hindu  share of the Hindu share of the population in India has dropped from 84.1% to 79.8% over 60 years to 2011. This was during a period of rapid population growth. But population growth is slowing for all communities, and the country’s total population will peak by 2060, after which it will cease to grow and may even decline.

     In the case of Muslims, the majority are in the Northern, Bimaru states, which have higher population growth rates than the all- India average. Economic and social stratification are other relevant factors. Finally, there is illegal immigration from Bangladesh, as can be seen from the distinct demographic trends in the districts of Assam and West Bengal that border Bangladesh.
 
        Rest of the communities are little worried about the report.. They think, if Islam becomes the majority community, then terrorism gains more power and in turn the world becomes more violent.