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Christian population growth is the population growth of the global Christian community. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were more than 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, more than three times as many as the 600 million recorded in 1910. However, this rate of growth is slower than the overall population growth over the same time period. [1] In 2020, Pew estimated the number of Christians worldwide to be around 2.38 billion. [2] According to various scholars and sources, high birth rates and conversions in the Global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growth. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] In 2023, it was reported: "There will be over 2.6 billion Christians worldwide by the middle of 2023 and around 3.3 billion by 2050, according to a report published in early January by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary." [9] [10]
This section needs to be updated.(September 2021) |
Tradition | Followers | % of the Christian population | % of the world population | Follower dynamics | Dynamics in- and outside Christianity |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Catholic Church | 1,094,610,000 | 50.1 | 15.9 | Growing | Stable |
Protestantism | 800,640,000 | 36.7 | 11.6 | Growing | Growing |
Orthodoxy | 260,380,000 | 11.9 | 3.8 | Shrinking | Shrinking |
Other denominations | 28,430,000 | 1.3 | 0.4 | Growing | Growing |
Christianity | 2,184,060,000 | 100 | 31.7 | Stable | Stable |
Christian median age in region (years) | Regional median age (years) | |
---|---|---|
World | 30 | |
Sub-Saharan Africa | 19 | 18 |
Latin America- Caribbean | 27 | 27 |
Asia-Pacific | 28 | 29 |
Middle East- North Africa | 29 | 24 |
North America | 39 | 37 |
Europe | 42 | 40 |
The Christian fertility rate is 2.7 children per woman, which is higher than the global average fertility rate of 2.5. Globally, Christians were only slightly older (median age of 30) than the global average median age of 28 in 2010. According to Pew Research religious switching is projected to have a modest impact on changes in the Christian population. [13] According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world; [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] this growth is primarily due to religious conversion to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. [19] [20]
According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, approximately 2.7 million converting to Christianity from another religion, World Christian Encyclopedia also cited that Christianity rank at first place in net gains through religious conversion. [21] While according to "The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion", approximately 15.5 million converting to Christianity from another religion, while approximately 11.7 million leave Christianity, and most of them become irreligious, resulting in a net gain of 3.8 million. [22] Christianity earns about 65.1 million people due to factors such as birth rate and religious conversion while losing 27.4 million people due to factors such as death rate and religious apostasy. Most of the net growth in the numbers of Christians are in Africa, Latin America and Asia. [22]
The Christian fertility rate has varied throughout history, as with other fertility figures. The Christian fertility rate also varies from country to country. In the 20-year period from 1989 to 2009, the average world fertility rate decreased from 3.50 to 2.58, a fall of 0.92 children per woman, or 26%. The weighted average fertility rate for Christian nations decreased in the same period from 3.26 to 2.58, a fall of 0.68 children per woman, or 21%. The weighted average fertility rate for Muslim nations decreased in the same period from 5.17 to 3.23, a fall of 1.94 children per woman, or 38%. While Muslims have an average of 3.1 children per woman—the highest rate of all religious groups—Christians are second, with 2.7 children per woman. [23]
The gap in fertility between the Christian- and Muslim-dominated nations fell from 67% in 1990 to 17% in 2010. According to a study published by the Pew Research Center in 2017, births to Muslims between the years of 2010 and 2015 made up an estimated 31% of all babies born around the world. By the Pew Research Center's estimates, the Muslim fertility rate and Christian fertility rate will converge by 2040. [24]
Country | Fertility rate (2019) (births/woman) [25] |
Percent Christian |
---|---|---|
Ecuador | 2.40 | 94% |
East Timor | 3.94 | 99% |
Armenia | 1.76 | 98.6% |
Equatorial Guinea | 4.43 | 92% |
Moldova | 1.27 | 95.3% |
Venezuela | 2.25 | 88.0% |
Greece | 1.35 | 90% |
The United States government does not collect religious data in its census. The survey below, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008, was a random digit-dialed telephone survey of 54,461 American residential households in the contiguous United States. The 1990 sample size was 113,723; 2001 sample size was 50,281.
Adult respondents were asked the open-ended question, "What is your religion, if any?" Interviewers did not prompt or offer a suggested list of potential answers. The religion of the spouse or partner was also asked. If the initial answer was "Protestant" or "Christian" further questions were asked to probe which particular denomination. About one-third of the sample was asked more detailed demographic questions.
Among the Asian population in the United States, conversion into Christianity is significantly increasing among Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. [131] By 2012 the percentage of Christians in these communities was 71%, 31%, and 38% respectively. [39]
Data from the Pew Research Center states that, as of 2013, about 1.6 million adult American Jews identify themselves as Christians, most as Protestants. [132] [133] [134] According to the same data, most of the Jews who identify themselves as some sort of Christian (1.6 million) were raised as Jewish or are Jews by ancestry. [133] According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 19% of those who say they were raised Jewish in the United States, consider themselves Christian. [135]
According to Pew Research, Christianity loses more people than it gains from religious conversion. It found that 23% of Americans raised as Christians no longer identified with Christianity, whereas 6% of current Christians converted. [136] This was in contrast to Islam in America, where the number of people who leave the religion is roughly equal to the number who convert to it. [136] The National Catholic Register claims that in 2015 there were 450,000 American Muslim converts to Christianity and that 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually in the United States. [137] According to scholar Rob Scott of University of Tasmania in 2010 there were "approximately 180,000 Arab Americans and about 130,000 Iranian Americans who converted from Islam to Christianity". [138]
Religious Self-Identification of the U.S. Adult Population: 1990, 2001, 2008
[139]
Figures are not adjusted for refusals to reply; investigators suspect refusals are possibly more representative of "no religion" than any other group.
Group |
1990 adults x 1,000 |
2001 adults x 1,000 |
2008 adults x 1,000 |
Numerical Change 1990– 2008 as % of 1990 |
1990 % of adults |
2001 % of adults |
2008 % of adults |
change in % of total adults 1990– 2008 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult population, total | 175,440 | 207,983 | 228,182 | 30.1% | ||||
Adult population, Responded | 171,409 | 196,683 | 216,367 | 26.2% | 97.7% | 94.6% | 94.8% | −2.9% |
Total Christian | 151,225 | 159,514 | 173,402 | 14.7% | 86.2% | 76.7% | 76.0% | −10.2% |
Catholic | 46,004 | 50,873 | 57,199 | 24.3% | 26.2% | 24.5% | 25.1% | −1.2% |
non-Catholic Christian | 105,221 | 108,641 | 116,203 | 10.4% | 60.0% | 52.2% | 50.9% | −9.0% |
Baptist | 33,964 | 33,820 | 36,148 | 6.4% | 19.4% | 16.3% | 15.8% | −3.5% |
Mainline Christian | 32,784 | 35,788 | 29,375 | −10.4% | 18.7% | 17.2% | 12.9% | −5.8% |
Methodist | 14,174 | 14,039 | 11,366 | −19.8% | 8.1% | 6.8% | 5.0% | −3.1% |
Lutheran | 9,110 | 9,580 | 8,674 | −4.8% | 5.2% | 4.6% | 3.8% | −1.4% |
Presbyterian | 4,985 | 5,596 | 4,723 | −5.3% | 2.8% | 2.7% | 2.1% | −0.8% |
Episcopalian/Anglican | 3,043 | 3,451 | 2,405 | −21.0% | 1.7% | 1.7% | 1.1% | −0.7% |
United Church of Christ | 438 | 1,378 | 736 | 68.0% | 0.2% | 0.7% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
Christian Generic | 25,980 | 22,546 | 32,441 | 24.9% | 14.8% | 10.8% | 14.2% | −0.6% |
Christian Unspecified | 8,073 | 14,190 | 16,384 | 102.9% | 4.6% | 6.8% | 7.2% | 2.6% |
Non-denominational Christian | 194 | 2,489 | 8,032 | 4040.2% | 0.1% | 1.2% | 3.5% | 3.4% |
Protestant – Unspecified | 17,214 | 4,647 | 5,187 | −69.9% | 9.8% | 2.2% | 2.3% | −7.5% |
Evangelical/Born Again | 546 | 1,088 | 2,154 | 294.5% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.9% | 0.6% |
Pentecostal/Charismatic | 5,647 | 7,831 | 7,948 | 40.7% | 3.2% | 3.8% | 3.5% | 0.3% |
Pentecostal – Unspecified | 3,116 | 4,407 | 5,416 | 73.8% | 1.8% | 2.1% | 2.4% | 0.6% |
Assemblies of God | 617 | 1,105 | 810 | 31.3% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.0% |
Church of God | 590 | 943 | 663 | 12.4% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.0% |
Other Protestant Denominations | 4,630 | 5,949 | 7,131 | 54.0% | 2.6% | 2.9% | 3.1% | 0.5% |
Churches of Christ | 1,769 | 2,593 | 1,921 | 8.6% | 1.0% | 1.2% | 0.8% | −0.2% |
Seventh-Day Adventist | 668 | 724 | 938 | 40.4% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.0% |
Jehovah's Witnesses | 1,381 | 1,331 | 1,914 | 38.6% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 0.8% | 0.1% |
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints | 2,487 | 2,697 | 3,158 | 27.0% | 1.4% | 1.3% | 1.4% | 0.0% |
Total non-Christian religions | 5,853 | 7,740 | 8,796 | 50.3% | 3.3% | 3.7% | 3.9% | 0.5% |
Jewish | 3,137 | 2,837 | 2,680 | −14.6% | 1.8% | 1.4% | 1.2% | −0.6% |
Eastern Religions | 687 | 2,020 | 1,961 | 185.4% | 0.4% | 1.0% | 0.9% | 0.5% |
Buddhist | 404 | 1,082 | 1,189 | 194.3% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
Muslim | 527 | 1,104 | 1,349 | 156.0% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.3% |
New Religious Movements & Others | 1,296 | 1,770 | 2,804 | 116.4% | 0.7% | 0.9% | 1.2% | 0.5% |
None/ No religion, total | 14,331 | 29,481 | 34,169 | 138.4% | 8.2% | 14.2% | 15.0% | 6.8% |
Agnostic+Atheist | 1,186 | 1,893 | 3,606 | 204.0% | 0.7% | 0.9% | 1.6% | 0.9% |
Did Not Know/ Refused to reply | 4,031 | 11,300 | 11,815 | 193.1% | 2.3% | 5.4% | 5.2% | 2.9% |
Highlights: [139]
A 2015 study estimates 60,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Saudi Arabia. [53]
Behind the trend: High birthrates and conversions in the global South.
Growth is related not only to conversion but also to a high rate of population growth.
Consequently, conversion influences the growth of the Christian community to a far greater degree than the Muslim one, delivering nearly 29% of the Christian population's annual growth.
Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world
With its remarkable ability to adapt to different cultures, Pentecostalism has become the world's fastest growing religious movement.
Pentecostalism is widely recognized by religious scholars as the fastest-growing Christian movement in the world, reaching into many different denominations.
One of the most significant transformations in twentieth-century Christianity is the emergence and development of Pentecostalism. With over five hundred million followers, it is the fastest-growing movement in the world. An incredibly diverse movement, it has influenced many sectors of Christianity, flourishing in Africa, Latin America, and Asia and having an equally significant effect on Canada.
Pentecostalism arguably has been the fastest growing religious movement in the contemporary world
At the heart of this religious resurgence are Islam and Pentecostalism, a branch of Protestant Christianity. Islam grew at an annual average of 1.9 percent between 2000 and 2017, mainly as the result of a high birth rate. Pentecostalism grew at 2.2 percent each year, mainly by conversion. Half of developing-world Christians are Pentecostal, evangelical or charismatic (all branches of the faith emphasize the authority of the Bible and the need for a spiritual rebirth). Why are people so attracted to it?.
Pentecostalism grew at 2.2 percent each year, mainly by conversion. Half of developing-world Christians are Pentecostal, evangelical or charismatic.
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Massive Growth Under the Radar: Each day, 35,000 people are born again through baptism with the Holy Spirit.
The spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion (Berger 2009).
A study of the religious lives of university students in Beijing published in a mainland Chinese academic journal Science and Atheism in 2013 showed Christianity to be the religion that interested students most and the most active on campuses. It concluded there was a "religious fever" in society and "religious forces were infiltrating colleges." With the support of "overseas religious forces," it said, there was a rapid growth in Christianity among university students. It said Christian fellowships on campus mostly refused to succumb to the leadership of the state-backed churches and thus posed "a problem" in the government's administration of religious affairs.
They also point out that more educated migrants and those from Hong Kong are more likely to become Christians than those from mainland China.
Finally, during this century there has been a rapid growth in the number of Chinese Christians. Very few Chinese were Christians at the turn of the century. Today Christians constitute approximately 10 or 15 percent of the Chinese population in Indonesia, and probably a higher percentage among the young. Conversion of Chinese to Christianity accelerated in the 1960s, especially in East Java, and for Indonesia as a whole the proportion of Chinese who were Catholics rose from 2 percent in 1957 to 6 percent in 19.
The reason is that a growing number of Iranians, especially the young, are converting to Zoroastrianism or Christianity.
P.15: Chiaramonte 2016), that it is young people in particular who convert to Christianity in today's Iran
A 2006 Gallup survey, however, is the largest to date and puts the number at 6%, which is much higher than its previous surveys. It notes a major increase among Japanese youth professing Christ.
This socio-demographic characterizes Christian converts as mostly .. (2) well-educated, (3) belonging in higher-income brackets, (4) switching their religion between ten and twenty-nine years of age
Converts to Christianity tend to come from the young, educated, English-speaking Chinese generation
Christianity has flourished in post-colonial Singapore, especially attracting conversions from among young, urbanized and English- educated.
Reports of widespread conversions of Muslims to Christianity come from regions as disparate as Algeria, Albania, Syria, and Kurdistan. Countries with the largest indigenous numbers include Algeria, 380,000; Ethiopia, 400,000; Iran, 500,000 (versus only 500 in 1979); Nigeria, 600,000; and Indonesia, an astounding 6,500,000.
MBBs also live in the West, with the United States hosting by far the most (450,000) and Bulgaria the most in Europe (45,000).
estimated that over 2 million Javanese Muslims became Christians between 1965 and 1971, and Pentecostal churches gained the most members
Between 1966 and 1976, some 2 million ethnic Javanese from nominally Islamic backgrounds converted to Christianity
Between 1966 and 1976, almost two million ethnic Javanese, most from abangan Islamic backgrounds, converted to Christianity.
Between 1966 and 1976, almost 2 million ethnic Javanese, most from nominally Islamic backgrounds, converted to Christianity. Another 250,000 to 400,000 became Hindu.
almost two million nominal Muslims to convert to Christianity
Simultaneously, a considerable number of muslims (about 2 million) converted to Christianity and Hinduism, a most unique event.
Some 2 million nominally Islamic Javanese reacted against the violence of their Muslim brethren by converting to Christianity
In the West, experts estimate thousands of Muslims switch to Christianity every year but keep their conversions secret for fear of retribution. "Converts from Islam, especially those who become involved in Christian ministries, often use assumed names, or only their first names, in order to protect themselves and their families," writes Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a Washington-based terrorism analyst in Commentary.
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Christianity. Growth rate: 1.38 percent. Adherents: 2.2 billion. Behind the trend: High birthrates and conversions in the global South.
Since 2000, thousands of Algerian Muslims have put their faith in Christ. Algerian officials estimate the number of Christians at 50,000, but others say it could be twice that number.
there is an estimated 20,000 to 100,000 evangelical Christians in Algeria, who practice their faith in mainly unregistered churches in the Kabyle region
some Algerian Muslims who converted to Christianity kept a low profile due to concern for their personal safety and potential legal and social problem
many as 20,000 to 40,000 Algerians, mostly Berbers, who have become Christian
. In all an estimated 40,000 Moroccans have converted to Christianity
Converted Moroccans — most of them secret worshippers, of whom there are estimated to be anywhere between 5,000 and 40,000 —
There are no official statistics, but leaders say there are about 50,000 Moroccan Christians, most of them from the Protestant Evangelical tradition.
the Moroccan Association of Human Rights estimates there are 25,000 Christian citizens. One media source reported that while most Christians in the country are foreigners, there are an estimated 8,000 Christian citizens and that "several thousand" citizens have converted, mostly to Protestant churches..
Converts to Christianity form a tiny minority of Moroccans. While no official statistics exist, the US State Department estimates their numbers at between 2,000 and 6,000.
Many of the minority of Muslims who came in this wave married Argentinean women and converted to Catholicism
That means that one-third of those raised Jewish or by Jewish parent(s) are not Jewish today, either because they identify with a religion other than Judaism (including 19% who consider themselves Christian) or because they do not currently identify as Jewish either by religion or aside from religion.
Although approximately 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually, ... In 2010 were approximately 180,000 and about 130,000 Iranian Americans who converted from Islam to Christianity.[ permanent dead link]
It estimated the Afghan Christian community ranges from 500 to 8,000 people. For all practical purposes, there are no native Afghan Christians; they are all converts from Islam who worship in secret to avoid being killed for apostasy..
all indigenous Christians ( whose numbers are impossible to determine but have been estimated by the State Department at 500-8,000 ) are converts from Islam
According to Iranian sources in Baku, Western "religious front associations" have converted some 5,000 Azerbaijanis to various Christian evangelical denominations since 1991
the 1990s these front organizations succeeded in converting some 5,000 Azeris to various Christian evangelical
In the last thirty years, there has been an increase in the number of Muslims converting to Christianity. According to one estimate, in the period between 1971 and 1991, the number of Christian converts in Bangladesh has risen from two hundred thousand to four hundred thousand..
it is estimated that as many as 91,000 Muslims across Bangladesh have converted to Christianity in the last six years.
For Christians, however, there are some net gains from conversion
In his research article, Miller (2015, p. 71) points to an anonymous, but the well-informed source that estimated that in 2010, there were about 100,000 converts in Iran... estimated the number of Christian ethnic Persians to be about 175,000. these were claimed to be converts of Shiite Muslim background.
The underground nature of the Christian conversion movement has made numbers impossible to determine accurately. Estimates range from 300,000 to 500,000 by various sources.
estimates citing figures lower than 10,000, and others, such as Open Doors USA, citing numbers above 800,000, Many Protestants and converts to Christianity from Islam reportedly practice in secret.
Conservative estimates place the number of Christians in Iran between 500,000 to 800,000 believers, but others claim there are more than one million. Traditionally, Christian families amount to around 250,000, while the remainder consists of converts from Islam. Most converts from Islam belong to the underground Protestant house-church movement, which Iran considers to be illegal. Meanwhile, according to Islamic and Iranian law, conversion from Islam is a capital offense.
Open Doors, interviewed by the UK Home Office on 8 August 2017, stated that many converts do not publicly report their faith due to persecution, so it is difficult to record the exact numbers of Iranian Christian converts. Open Doors believes the number to be 800,000, although this is a conservative estimate. Other estimates put the number between 400,000-500,000 right up to 3 million... A March 2019 US Congressional Research Service report on Iran put the 300,000
Shay Khatiri of Johns Hopkins University wrote last year about Iran that "Islam is the fastest shrinking religion there, while Christianity is growing the fastest."
Speaking of faith and Iran, most people think of Islam. Yet Islam is the fastest shrinking religion there, while Christianity is growing the fastest. According to a report by the Department of State from 2018, up to half a million Iranians are Christian converts from Muslim families, and most of these Christians are evangelicals. Recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between one million and three million. This is up from 100,000 in 1994, and a majority of these converts are reportedly women. A recent documentary, Sheep among Wolves, documents the lives of these converts and shows how Iran is the "fastest-growing church" in the world.
Recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between one million and three million.
The Christian community itself counts only those who have been baptized and are currently regular churchgoers – some 1 million people, or less than 1 percent of the population, according to Nobuhisa Yamakita, moderator of the United Church of Christ in Japan
The population of Japan is less than one-percent Christian
followers of the Christian faith constitute only about a half percent of the Japanese population
The 2006 Gallup poll, however, disclosed that an astounding 12 per cent of Japanese who claim a religion are now Christian, making six per cent of the entire nation Christian.
Today it is possible to speak of thousand of Kyrgyz and Kazakhs converted to Protestantism. This new phenomenon has clashed with the common belief that all native people must be Muslim
P.25: By the early 2000s, some scholars estimated the total number of Kyrgyz converts to Christianity to about 25,000
Harussani Zakaria, publicly fulminated that up to 260,000 Muslims in Malaysia had left the faith and converted to Christianity
The social influence of Christianity, however, extends far beyond its membership especially in the sphere of education, giving Christianity a middle-class identity... Conversion is increasing among Chinese in Singapore, both into Christianity and into Buddhism.
Converts to Christianity tend to come from the young, educated, English-speaking Chinese generation
A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani
In 2016, the government estimated the number of Christian converts at up to 3,000 persons.
More tangibly, figures published in January 2004 in Turkey's mainstream Milliyet newspaper claimed that 35,000 Muslims, the vast majority of them in Istanbul, had converted to Christianity in 2003. While impossible to confirm (the Turkish government does not release these figures), the rate of conversion, according to Christian leaders in Turkey, is on the rise.
The estimated number of Protestants in Turkey is 3,000–10,000, most of whom live in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Protestantism has been a part of Turkey's history for 200 years, first spreading among the non-Muslim minorities. Conversion from Islam to Protestantism was very rare until the 1960s, but Muslim converts currently constitute the majority of Protestants..
a number that vastly exceeds the size of present-day Turkish-speaking Protestant churches, of whose 3,000 members are converts from Islam
The liberal newspaper Radikal estimates that there are about 10,000 converts in Turkey, expressing surprise that they could be seen as a "threat" in a country of 73 million people, 99 percent of whom are Muslim.
Reports of widespread conversions of Muslims to Christianity come from regions as disparate as Algeria, Albania, Syria, and Kurdistan.
P.19: A part of the Muslims in emigration are directly or indirectly induced to convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy
In 1990, as the situation began to worsen, many Muslim Albanians contemplated a mass conversion to Catholicism
P.19: A part of the Muslims in emigration are directly or indirectly induced to convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy
Numerous cases of conversion from Islam to Orthodox Christianity are just one of the ways to express the changes in the fluid identity of Bulgarian Muslims ("Pomaks") in Bulgaria after 1990
Conversion to Christianity also surfaced, not least among the group of refugees arriving from the early 1980s from different areas in the Muslim world hit by civil wars or inter-state conflicts.
In the Netherlands and Denmark, as well, many are converting from Islam to Christianity, and the trend appears to be growing. Indeed, converts are filling up some European churches largely forsaken by their old Christian flocks.
Richard Kronk has extensively researched Muslim conversion in France. He provides examples of the challenges faced by Muslim converts to Christianity. His research primarily deals with Christians of Maghrebi background (CMB) From Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.
more than 20,000 Abkhazian Muslims converted to Christianity
gained through ethnographic research with Turkish and Kurdish converts to Christianity in both Turkey and German.
In the Netherlands, thousands of Iranian Muslim migrants and refugees are converting to Christianity, despite conversion from Islam being considered apostasy in Iran and punishable by death.
There is no space to elaborate here, but the research carried out by Spellman (2004b) and Miller (2014) sheds light on the growth of Iranian Muslim conversion to born-again Christianity in England and Scotland
P.9: Iranian Christian converts in Britain form three distinguishable groups depending on where they've converted: 1. Those who converted in Iran 2. Those who converted in transit (mostly Turkey) 3. Those who converted in Britain
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Christian population growth is the population growth of the global Christian community. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were more than 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, more than three times as many as the 600 million recorded in 1910. However, this rate of growth is slower than the overall population growth over the same time period. [1] In 2020, Pew estimated the number of Christians worldwide to be around 2.38 billion. [2] According to various scholars and sources, high birth rates and conversions in the Global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growth. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] In 2023, it was reported: "There will be over 2.6 billion Christians worldwide by the middle of 2023 and around 3.3 billion by 2050, according to a report published in early January by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary." [9] [10]
This section needs to be updated.(September 2021) |
Tradition | Followers | % of the Christian population | % of the world population | Follower dynamics | Dynamics in- and outside Christianity |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Catholic Church | 1,094,610,000 | 50.1 | 15.9 | Growing | Stable |
Protestantism | 800,640,000 | 36.7 | 11.6 | Growing | Growing |
Orthodoxy | 260,380,000 | 11.9 | 3.8 | Shrinking | Shrinking |
Other denominations | 28,430,000 | 1.3 | 0.4 | Growing | Growing |
Christianity | 2,184,060,000 | 100 | 31.7 | Stable | Stable |
Christian median age in region (years) | Regional median age (years) | |
---|---|---|
World | 30 | |
Sub-Saharan Africa | 19 | 18 |
Latin America- Caribbean | 27 | 27 |
Asia-Pacific | 28 | 29 |
Middle East- North Africa | 29 | 24 |
North America | 39 | 37 |
Europe | 42 | 40 |
The Christian fertility rate is 2.7 children per woman, which is higher than the global average fertility rate of 2.5. Globally, Christians were only slightly older (median age of 30) than the global average median age of 28 in 2010. According to Pew Research religious switching is projected to have a modest impact on changes in the Christian population. [13] According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world; [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] this growth is primarily due to religious conversion to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. [19] [20]
According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, approximately 2.7 million converting to Christianity from another religion, World Christian Encyclopedia also cited that Christianity rank at first place in net gains through religious conversion. [21] While according to "The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion", approximately 15.5 million converting to Christianity from another religion, while approximately 11.7 million leave Christianity, and most of them become irreligious, resulting in a net gain of 3.8 million. [22] Christianity earns about 65.1 million people due to factors such as birth rate and religious conversion while losing 27.4 million people due to factors such as death rate and religious apostasy. Most of the net growth in the numbers of Christians are in Africa, Latin America and Asia. [22]
The Christian fertility rate has varied throughout history, as with other fertility figures. The Christian fertility rate also varies from country to country. In the 20-year period from 1989 to 2009, the average world fertility rate decreased from 3.50 to 2.58, a fall of 0.92 children per woman, or 26%. The weighted average fertility rate for Christian nations decreased in the same period from 3.26 to 2.58, a fall of 0.68 children per woman, or 21%. The weighted average fertility rate for Muslim nations decreased in the same period from 5.17 to 3.23, a fall of 1.94 children per woman, or 38%. While Muslims have an average of 3.1 children per woman—the highest rate of all religious groups—Christians are second, with 2.7 children per woman. [23]
The gap in fertility between the Christian- and Muslim-dominated nations fell from 67% in 1990 to 17% in 2010. According to a study published by the Pew Research Center in 2017, births to Muslims between the years of 2010 and 2015 made up an estimated 31% of all babies born around the world. By the Pew Research Center's estimates, the Muslim fertility rate and Christian fertility rate will converge by 2040. [24]
Country | Fertility rate (2019) (births/woman) [25] |
Percent Christian |
---|---|---|
Ecuador | 2.40 | 94% |
East Timor | 3.94 | 99% |
Armenia | 1.76 | 98.6% |
Equatorial Guinea | 4.43 | 92% |
Moldova | 1.27 | 95.3% |
Venezuela | 2.25 | 88.0% |
Greece | 1.35 | 90% |
The United States government does not collect religious data in its census. The survey below, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008, was a random digit-dialed telephone survey of 54,461 American residential households in the contiguous United States. The 1990 sample size was 113,723; 2001 sample size was 50,281.
Adult respondents were asked the open-ended question, "What is your religion, if any?" Interviewers did not prompt or offer a suggested list of potential answers. The religion of the spouse or partner was also asked. If the initial answer was "Protestant" or "Christian" further questions were asked to probe which particular denomination. About one-third of the sample was asked more detailed demographic questions.
Among the Asian population in the United States, conversion into Christianity is significantly increasing among Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. [131] By 2012 the percentage of Christians in these communities was 71%, 31%, and 38% respectively. [39]
Data from the Pew Research Center states that, as of 2013, about 1.6 million adult American Jews identify themselves as Christians, most as Protestants. [132] [133] [134] According to the same data, most of the Jews who identify themselves as some sort of Christian (1.6 million) were raised as Jewish or are Jews by ancestry. [133] According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 19% of those who say they were raised Jewish in the United States, consider themselves Christian. [135]
According to Pew Research, Christianity loses more people than it gains from religious conversion. It found that 23% of Americans raised as Christians no longer identified with Christianity, whereas 6% of current Christians converted. [136] This was in contrast to Islam in America, where the number of people who leave the religion is roughly equal to the number who convert to it. [136] The National Catholic Register claims that in 2015 there were 450,000 American Muslim converts to Christianity and that 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually in the United States. [137] According to scholar Rob Scott of University of Tasmania in 2010 there were "approximately 180,000 Arab Americans and about 130,000 Iranian Americans who converted from Islam to Christianity". [138]
Religious Self-Identification of the U.S. Adult Population: 1990, 2001, 2008
[139]
Figures are not adjusted for refusals to reply; investigators suspect refusals are possibly more representative of "no religion" than any other group.
Group |
1990 adults x 1,000 |
2001 adults x 1,000 |
2008 adults x 1,000 |
Numerical Change 1990– 2008 as % of 1990 |
1990 % of adults |
2001 % of adults |
2008 % of adults |
change in % of total adults 1990– 2008 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult population, total | 175,440 | 207,983 | 228,182 | 30.1% | ||||
Adult population, Responded | 171,409 | 196,683 | 216,367 | 26.2% | 97.7% | 94.6% | 94.8% | −2.9% |
Total Christian | 151,225 | 159,514 | 173,402 | 14.7% | 86.2% | 76.7% | 76.0% | −10.2% |
Catholic | 46,004 | 50,873 | 57,199 | 24.3% | 26.2% | 24.5% | 25.1% | −1.2% |
non-Catholic Christian | 105,221 | 108,641 | 116,203 | 10.4% | 60.0% | 52.2% | 50.9% | −9.0% |
Baptist | 33,964 | 33,820 | 36,148 | 6.4% | 19.4% | 16.3% | 15.8% | −3.5% |
Mainline Christian | 32,784 | 35,788 | 29,375 | −10.4% | 18.7% | 17.2% | 12.9% | −5.8% |
Methodist | 14,174 | 14,039 | 11,366 | −19.8% | 8.1% | 6.8% | 5.0% | −3.1% |
Lutheran | 9,110 | 9,580 | 8,674 | −4.8% | 5.2% | 4.6% | 3.8% | −1.4% |
Presbyterian | 4,985 | 5,596 | 4,723 | −5.3% | 2.8% | 2.7% | 2.1% | −0.8% |
Episcopalian/Anglican | 3,043 | 3,451 | 2,405 | −21.0% | 1.7% | 1.7% | 1.1% | −0.7% |
United Church of Christ | 438 | 1,378 | 736 | 68.0% | 0.2% | 0.7% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
Christian Generic | 25,980 | 22,546 | 32,441 | 24.9% | 14.8% | 10.8% | 14.2% | −0.6% |
Christian Unspecified | 8,073 | 14,190 | 16,384 | 102.9% | 4.6% | 6.8% | 7.2% | 2.6% |
Non-denominational Christian | 194 | 2,489 | 8,032 | 4040.2% | 0.1% | 1.2% | 3.5% | 3.4% |
Protestant – Unspecified | 17,214 | 4,647 | 5,187 | −69.9% | 9.8% | 2.2% | 2.3% | −7.5% |
Evangelical/Born Again | 546 | 1,088 | 2,154 | 294.5% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.9% | 0.6% |
Pentecostal/Charismatic | 5,647 | 7,831 | 7,948 | 40.7% | 3.2% | 3.8% | 3.5% | 0.3% |
Pentecostal – Unspecified | 3,116 | 4,407 | 5,416 | 73.8% | 1.8% | 2.1% | 2.4% | 0.6% |
Assemblies of God | 617 | 1,105 | 810 | 31.3% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.0% |
Church of God | 590 | 943 | 663 | 12.4% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.0% |
Other Protestant Denominations | 4,630 | 5,949 | 7,131 | 54.0% | 2.6% | 2.9% | 3.1% | 0.5% |
Churches of Christ | 1,769 | 2,593 | 1,921 | 8.6% | 1.0% | 1.2% | 0.8% | −0.2% |
Seventh-Day Adventist | 668 | 724 | 938 | 40.4% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.0% |
Jehovah's Witnesses | 1,381 | 1,331 | 1,914 | 38.6% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 0.8% | 0.1% |
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints | 2,487 | 2,697 | 3,158 | 27.0% | 1.4% | 1.3% | 1.4% | 0.0% |
Total non-Christian religions | 5,853 | 7,740 | 8,796 | 50.3% | 3.3% | 3.7% | 3.9% | 0.5% |
Jewish | 3,137 | 2,837 | 2,680 | −14.6% | 1.8% | 1.4% | 1.2% | −0.6% |
Eastern Religions | 687 | 2,020 | 1,961 | 185.4% | 0.4% | 1.0% | 0.9% | 0.5% |
Buddhist | 404 | 1,082 | 1,189 | 194.3% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
Muslim | 527 | 1,104 | 1,349 | 156.0% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.3% |
New Religious Movements & Others | 1,296 | 1,770 | 2,804 | 116.4% | 0.7% | 0.9% | 1.2% | 0.5% |
None/ No religion, total | 14,331 | 29,481 | 34,169 | 138.4% | 8.2% | 14.2% | 15.0% | 6.8% |
Agnostic+Atheist | 1,186 | 1,893 | 3,606 | 204.0% | 0.7% | 0.9% | 1.6% | 0.9% |
Did Not Know/ Refused to reply | 4,031 | 11,300 | 11,815 | 193.1% | 2.3% | 5.4% | 5.2% | 2.9% |
Highlights: [139]
A 2015 study estimates 60,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Saudi Arabia. [53]
Behind the trend: High birthrates and conversions in the global South.
Growth is related not only to conversion but also to a high rate of population growth.
Consequently, conversion influences the growth of the Christian community to a far greater degree than the Muslim one, delivering nearly 29% of the Christian population's annual growth.
Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world
With its remarkable ability to adapt to different cultures, Pentecostalism has become the world's fastest growing religious movement.
Pentecostalism is widely recognized by religious scholars as the fastest-growing Christian movement in the world, reaching into many different denominations.
One of the most significant transformations in twentieth-century Christianity is the emergence and development of Pentecostalism. With over five hundred million followers, it is the fastest-growing movement in the world. An incredibly diverse movement, it has influenced many sectors of Christianity, flourishing in Africa, Latin America, and Asia and having an equally significant effect on Canada.
Pentecostalism arguably has been the fastest growing religious movement in the contemporary world
At the heart of this religious resurgence are Islam and Pentecostalism, a branch of Protestant Christianity. Islam grew at an annual average of 1.9 percent between 2000 and 2017, mainly as the result of a high birth rate. Pentecostalism grew at 2.2 percent each year, mainly by conversion. Half of developing-world Christians are Pentecostal, evangelical or charismatic (all branches of the faith emphasize the authority of the Bible and the need for a spiritual rebirth). Why are people so attracted to it?.
Pentecostalism grew at 2.2 percent each year, mainly by conversion. Half of developing-world Christians are Pentecostal, evangelical or charismatic.
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Massive Growth Under the Radar: Each day, 35,000 people are born again through baptism with the Holy Spirit.
The spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion (Berger 2009).
A study of the religious lives of university students in Beijing published in a mainland Chinese academic journal Science and Atheism in 2013 showed Christianity to be the religion that interested students most and the most active on campuses. It concluded there was a "religious fever" in society and "religious forces were infiltrating colleges." With the support of "overseas religious forces," it said, there was a rapid growth in Christianity among university students. It said Christian fellowships on campus mostly refused to succumb to the leadership of the state-backed churches and thus posed "a problem" in the government's administration of religious affairs.
They also point out that more educated migrants and those from Hong Kong are more likely to become Christians than those from mainland China.
Finally, during this century there has been a rapid growth in the number of Chinese Christians. Very few Chinese were Christians at the turn of the century. Today Christians constitute approximately 10 or 15 percent of the Chinese population in Indonesia, and probably a higher percentage among the young. Conversion of Chinese to Christianity accelerated in the 1960s, especially in East Java, and for Indonesia as a whole the proportion of Chinese who were Catholics rose from 2 percent in 1957 to 6 percent in 19.
The reason is that a growing number of Iranians, especially the young, are converting to Zoroastrianism or Christianity.
P.15: Chiaramonte 2016), that it is young people in particular who convert to Christianity in today's Iran
A 2006 Gallup survey, however, is the largest to date and puts the number at 6%, which is much higher than its previous surveys. It notes a major increase among Japanese youth professing Christ.
This socio-demographic characterizes Christian converts as mostly .. (2) well-educated, (3) belonging in higher-income brackets, (4) switching their religion between ten and twenty-nine years of age
Converts to Christianity tend to come from the young, educated, English-speaking Chinese generation
Christianity has flourished in post-colonial Singapore, especially attracting conversions from among young, urbanized and English- educated.
Reports of widespread conversions of Muslims to Christianity come from regions as disparate as Algeria, Albania, Syria, and Kurdistan. Countries with the largest indigenous numbers include Algeria, 380,000; Ethiopia, 400,000; Iran, 500,000 (versus only 500 in 1979); Nigeria, 600,000; and Indonesia, an astounding 6,500,000.
MBBs also live in the West, with the United States hosting by far the most (450,000) and Bulgaria the most in Europe (45,000).
estimated that over 2 million Javanese Muslims became Christians between 1965 and 1971, and Pentecostal churches gained the most members
Between 1966 and 1976, some 2 million ethnic Javanese from nominally Islamic backgrounds converted to Christianity
Between 1966 and 1976, almost two million ethnic Javanese, most from abangan Islamic backgrounds, converted to Christianity.
Between 1966 and 1976, almost 2 million ethnic Javanese, most from nominally Islamic backgrounds, converted to Christianity. Another 250,000 to 400,000 became Hindu.
almost two million nominal Muslims to convert to Christianity
Simultaneously, a considerable number of muslims (about 2 million) converted to Christianity and Hinduism, a most unique event.
Some 2 million nominally Islamic Javanese reacted against the violence of their Muslim brethren by converting to Christianity
In the West, experts estimate thousands of Muslims switch to Christianity every year but keep their conversions secret for fear of retribution. "Converts from Islam, especially those who become involved in Christian ministries, often use assumed names, or only their first names, in order to protect themselves and their families," writes Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a Washington-based terrorism analyst in Commentary.
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Christianity. Growth rate: 1.38 percent. Adherents: 2.2 billion. Behind the trend: High birthrates and conversions in the global South.
Since 2000, thousands of Algerian Muslims have put their faith in Christ. Algerian officials estimate the number of Christians at 50,000, but others say it could be twice that number.
there is an estimated 20,000 to 100,000 evangelical Christians in Algeria, who practice their faith in mainly unregistered churches in the Kabyle region
some Algerian Muslims who converted to Christianity kept a low profile due to concern for their personal safety and potential legal and social problem
many as 20,000 to 40,000 Algerians, mostly Berbers, who have become Christian
. In all an estimated 40,000 Moroccans have converted to Christianity
Converted Moroccans — most of them secret worshippers, of whom there are estimated to be anywhere between 5,000 and 40,000 —
There are no official statistics, but leaders say there are about 50,000 Moroccan Christians, most of them from the Protestant Evangelical tradition.
the Moroccan Association of Human Rights estimates there are 25,000 Christian citizens. One media source reported that while most Christians in the country are foreigners, there are an estimated 8,000 Christian citizens and that "several thousand" citizens have converted, mostly to Protestant churches..
Converts to Christianity form a tiny minority of Moroccans. While no official statistics exist, the US State Department estimates their numbers at between 2,000 and 6,000.
Many of the minority of Muslims who came in this wave married Argentinean women and converted to Catholicism
That means that one-third of those raised Jewish or by Jewish parent(s) are not Jewish today, either because they identify with a religion other than Judaism (including 19% who consider themselves Christian) or because they do not currently identify as Jewish either by religion or aside from religion.
Although approximately 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually, ... In 2010 were approximately 180,000 and about 130,000 Iranian Americans who converted from Islam to Christianity.[ permanent dead link]
It estimated the Afghan Christian community ranges from 500 to 8,000 people. For all practical purposes, there are no native Afghan Christians; they are all converts from Islam who worship in secret to avoid being killed for apostasy..
all indigenous Christians ( whose numbers are impossible to determine but have been estimated by the State Department at 500-8,000 ) are converts from Islam
According to Iranian sources in Baku, Western "religious front associations" have converted some 5,000 Azerbaijanis to various Christian evangelical denominations since 1991
the 1990s these front organizations succeeded in converting some 5,000 Azeris to various Christian evangelical
In the last thirty years, there has been an increase in the number of Muslims converting to Christianity. According to one estimate, in the period between 1971 and 1991, the number of Christian converts in Bangladesh has risen from two hundred thousand to four hundred thousand..
it is estimated that as many as 91,000 Muslims across Bangladesh have converted to Christianity in the last six years.
For Christians, however, there are some net gains from conversion
In his research article, Miller (2015, p. 71) points to an anonymous, but the well-informed source that estimated that in 2010, there were about 100,000 converts in Iran... estimated the number of Christian ethnic Persians to be about 175,000. these were claimed to be converts of Shiite Muslim background.
The underground nature of the Christian conversion movement has made numbers impossible to determine accurately. Estimates range from 300,000 to 500,000 by various sources.
estimates citing figures lower than 10,000, and others, such as Open Doors USA, citing numbers above 800,000, Many Protestants and converts to Christianity from Islam reportedly practice in secret.
Conservative estimates place the number of Christians in Iran between 500,000 to 800,000 believers, but others claim there are more than one million. Traditionally, Christian families amount to around 250,000, while the remainder consists of converts from Islam. Most converts from Islam belong to the underground Protestant house-church movement, which Iran considers to be illegal. Meanwhile, according to Islamic and Iranian law, conversion from Islam is a capital offense.
Open Doors, interviewed by the UK Home Office on 8 August 2017, stated that many converts do not publicly report their faith due to persecution, so it is difficult to record the exact numbers of Iranian Christian converts. Open Doors believes the number to be 800,000, although this is a conservative estimate. Other estimates put the number between 400,000-500,000 right up to 3 million... A March 2019 US Congressional Research Service report on Iran put the 300,000
Shay Khatiri of Johns Hopkins University wrote last year about Iran that "Islam is the fastest shrinking religion there, while Christianity is growing the fastest."
Speaking of faith and Iran, most people think of Islam. Yet Islam is the fastest shrinking religion there, while Christianity is growing the fastest. According to a report by the Department of State from 2018, up to half a million Iranians are Christian converts from Muslim families, and most of these Christians are evangelicals. Recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between one million and three million. This is up from 100,000 in 1994, and a majority of these converts are reportedly women. A recent documentary, Sheep among Wolves, documents the lives of these converts and shows how Iran is the "fastest-growing church" in the world.
Recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between one million and three million.
The Christian community itself counts only those who have been baptized and are currently regular churchgoers – some 1 million people, or less than 1 percent of the population, according to Nobuhisa Yamakita, moderator of the United Church of Christ in Japan
The population of Japan is less than one-percent Christian
followers of the Christian faith constitute only about a half percent of the Japanese population
The 2006 Gallup poll, however, disclosed that an astounding 12 per cent of Japanese who claim a religion are now Christian, making six per cent of the entire nation Christian.
Today it is possible to speak of thousand of Kyrgyz and Kazakhs converted to Protestantism. This new phenomenon has clashed with the common belief that all native people must be Muslim
P.25: By the early 2000s, some scholars estimated the total number of Kyrgyz converts to Christianity to about 25,000
Harussani Zakaria, publicly fulminated that up to 260,000 Muslims in Malaysia had left the faith and converted to Christianity
The social influence of Christianity, however, extends far beyond its membership especially in the sphere of education, giving Christianity a middle-class identity... Conversion is increasing among Chinese in Singapore, both into Christianity and into Buddhism.
Converts to Christianity tend to come from the young, educated, English-speaking Chinese generation
A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani
In 2016, the government estimated the number of Christian converts at up to 3,000 persons.
More tangibly, figures published in January 2004 in Turkey's mainstream Milliyet newspaper claimed that 35,000 Muslims, the vast majority of them in Istanbul, had converted to Christianity in 2003. While impossible to confirm (the Turkish government does not release these figures), the rate of conversion, according to Christian leaders in Turkey, is on the rise.
The estimated number of Protestants in Turkey is 3,000–10,000, most of whom live in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Protestantism has been a part of Turkey's history for 200 years, first spreading among the non-Muslim minorities. Conversion from Islam to Protestantism was very rare until the 1960s, but Muslim converts currently constitute the majority of Protestants..
a number that vastly exceeds the size of present-day Turkish-speaking Protestant churches, of whose 3,000 members are converts from Islam
The liberal newspaper Radikal estimates that there are about 10,000 converts in Turkey, expressing surprise that they could be seen as a "threat" in a country of 73 million people, 99 percent of whom are Muslim.
Reports of widespread conversions of Muslims to Christianity come from regions as disparate as Algeria, Albania, Syria, and Kurdistan.
P.19: A part of the Muslims in emigration are directly or indirectly induced to convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy
In 1990, as the situation began to worsen, many Muslim Albanians contemplated a mass conversion to Catholicism
P.19: A part of the Muslims in emigration are directly or indirectly induced to convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy
Numerous cases of conversion from Islam to Orthodox Christianity are just one of the ways to express the changes in the fluid identity of Bulgarian Muslims ("Pomaks") in Bulgaria after 1990
Conversion to Christianity also surfaced, not least among the group of refugees arriving from the early 1980s from different areas in the Muslim world hit by civil wars or inter-state conflicts.
In the Netherlands and Denmark, as well, many are converting from Islam to Christianity, and the trend appears to be growing. Indeed, converts are filling up some European churches largely forsaken by their old Christian flocks.
Richard Kronk has extensively researched Muslim conversion in France. He provides examples of the challenges faced by Muslim converts to Christianity. His research primarily deals with Christians of Maghrebi background (CMB) From Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.
more than 20,000 Abkhazian Muslims converted to Christianity
gained through ethnographic research with Turkish and Kurdish converts to Christianity in both Turkey and German.
In the Netherlands, thousands of Iranian Muslim migrants and refugees are converting to Christianity, despite conversion from Islam being considered apostasy in Iran and punishable by death.
There is no space to elaborate here, but the research carried out by Spellman (2004b) and Miller (2014) sheds light on the growth of Iranian Muslim conversion to born-again Christianity in England and Scotland
P.9: Iranian Christian converts in Britain form three distinguishable groups depending on where they've converted: 1. Those who converted in Iran 2. Those who converted in transit (mostly Turkey) 3. Those who converted in Britain