Pew Research Centre scientists noted that more and more people prefer not to affiliate themselves with any religious movement. They claim that this group now accounts for almost a quarter of the world's population.
The population of Europe is changing, and along with it, the religious landscape of the continent is undergoing changes, experts from the Pew Research Centre report.
Analyzing the number of denominations represented in the region, they concluded that the share of Christians is decreasing, but they still remain the largest religious group in Europe.
The counts were conducted over the period from 2010 to 2020. During this time, Pew Research Centre writes, the number of people identifying as Christians in Europe decreased from 74% of the population to 6%. "About two out of three people in Europe still consider themselves Christians. But back in 2010, it was three out of four," explains Conrad Hackett, a senior demographer at the Pew Research Centre.
France and the United Kingdom have lost their Christian religious majority. According to the study, the main factor in the decline of the share of Christians has been religious disaffiliation, where people born as Christians begin to identify as religiously unaffiliated as they age.
Thus, over the 10 reporting years, the share of those who consider themselves atheists in Europe has increased by 37%.
The number of followers of Hinduism, Judaism, and other smaller denominations has remained virtually unchanged, while the number of Buddhists has decreased, the authors of the study note.
In 2020, the share of Muslims in Europe was 6% of the population. Ten years earlier, in 2010, this figure was 5.3%, meaning the growth was less than one percent. In absolute numbers, about 753 million people live in Europe (excluding Turkey, but including Russia), of which the number of Muslims increased from 39 to 45 million over the decade.
The Pew Research Centre reminds us that Europe is a region with an aging population. Jews and Christians are groups with the highest median ages, at 52 and 45 years respectively. Muslims are the youngest religious group, with an average age of 34 years.
The Pew Research Centre study relies on data obtained from censuses and surveys. However, the methodologies are not always comparable. "Each country in Europe has its own peculiarities," notes Hackett. "In some places, religion is accounted for in the census, but in most countries, it is not."
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