Where is christianity growing the fastest

Andrew Stutesman photo Unsplash By Aaron Earls Instead of evaluating Christianity based on a local or even national perspective, a global vantage point can provide a better picture of the status of the faith. Christianity is growing faster than the population. Pentecostals and Evangelicals are growing the fastest and are still picking up speed. Dig Deeper at Lifeway. I Am Going Daniel L. Sign Up. Leader Resources. However, the openness of the people is evidenced by a growth rate of The Evangelical population in Afghanistan is growing at a rate of Still, Evangelicals number only about 8, out of a total population of more than 29 million.

There are close to , Evangelicals in Nepal, nearly 10 times the number in Afghanistan. The rate of growth among Evangelicals in Nepal is 5. By contrast, the United States makes the other list, coming in at 30 th place among the nations with the least growth in the Evangelical population. Even with a population of 1. In other words, there is a direct link from affluence to atheism. In our statistical analysis of a global sample of countries from to , we find that the most important determinant of Christian vitality is the extent to which governments give official support to Christianity through their laws and policies.

However, it is not in the way devout believers might expect. As governmental support for Christianity increases, the number of Christians declines significantly. This relationship holds even when accounting for other factors that might be driving Christian growth rates, such as overall demographic trends.

We acknowledge that our methodology and datasets cannot account for a factor of great importance to Christians: the movement of the Holy Spirit. However, our numerous statistical tests of the available data reveal that the relationship between state privilege of Christianity and Christian decline is a causal one, as opposed to only correlation.

Our study notes three different paradoxes of the vibrancy of Christianity: the paradox of pluralism, the paradox of privilege, and the paradox of persecution.

Many Christians believe that the best way for Christianity to thrive is to shut out all other religions. Ironically, though, Christianity is often the strongest in countries where it has to compete with other faith traditions on an equal playing field. Perhaps the best explanation for this is derived from The Wealth of Nations , the most important work of Adam Smith.

The famous economist argued that just as a market economy spurs competition, innovation, and vigor among firms by forcing them to compete for market share, an unregulated religious marketplace would have the same effect on institutions of faith.

Just as iron sharpens iron, competition hones religion. Contexts of pluralism force Christians to present the best arguments possible for their beliefs, even as other faith traditions are forced to do the same. This requires Christians to have a deep knowledge of their beliefs and to defend them in the marketplace of ideas. Seven of the 10 countries with the fastest-growing Christian populations offer low or no official support for Christianity.

Paradoxically, Christianity does best when it has to fend for itself. The paradox of pluralism can be seen in the two world regions where Christianity is growing the fastest: Asia and Africa. The strongest increase of Christianity over the past century has been in Asia, where the faith has grown at twice the rate of the population.

How do we explain this paradox? In contrast to Europe, Christianity in Asian countries has not been in a position to receive preferential treatment from the state, and this reality has resulted in stunning Christian growth rates. The Christian faith has actually benefited by not being institutionally attached to the state, feeding its growth and vitality.

Consider the case of South Korea, which in the course of a century has gone from being a country devoid of Christianity to one of its biggest exporters. It currently ranks as the second-largest sender of missionaries, trailing only the United States. This example illustrates well the paradox of pluralism. Because South Korea is not a Christian country, Christianity enjoys no special relationship to the state.

In fact, Christianity in Korea endured the brutal persecution of Japanese colonial rule, during which churches were forcibly closed down and their properties confiscated. Indeed, the church persisted through poverty, war, dictatorship, and national crises throughout Korean history. Since World War II, Korean Christianity has grown exponentially, with tens of thousands of churches being built and seminaries producing thousands of graduates every year.

Today, about a third of the country is Christian. Africa is the other world region where Christianity has seen breathtaking growth, particularly in recent decades.

Indeed, the 10 countries noted above with the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world from to are all located in sub-Saharan Africa. Christianity has made inroads into Africa not because it enjoys a privileged position with the state, but because it has to compete with other faith traditions on an even playing field. By , that number is expected to swell to 53 percent. Out of million Protestants, more than million call Africa home in In , the 10 nations with the largest population of Protestants were all in Europe or former British colonies such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Only three of those nations—the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany—remained on the list in