christianty growing and decling

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Christianity is experiencing significant growth, particularly in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Specifically, Africa is estimated to have the fastest growth rate, with projections of 600 million Christians by 2025, according to Wikipedia. Pentecostalism is also considered the fastest-growing religious movement in the world.
Elaboration:
Africa:
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Christianity has seen dramatic growth in Africa, with estimates of 390 million adherents currently and a projection of 600 million by 2025.
Latin America and Asia:
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Besides Africa, Christianity is also growing rapidly in Latin America and Asia.
Pentecostalism:
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Within Christianity, Pentecostalism is noted as the fastest-growing religious movement globally.
Declining in the West:
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In contrast to growth in other regions, Christianity is declining in many Western countries, including Western Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand


Islam is the fastest-growing religion in Europe. According to the Pew Research Center, the Muslim population in Europe (excluding Turkey) was about 30 million in 1990, and 44 million in 2010; the Muslim share of the population increased from 4.1% in 1990 to 6% in 2010.
Although Christianity is the largest religion in the world, experts say that by 2050 IIslam will surpass it.Feb 16, 2023


From Catholic Answers Vladimir Soloviev: The Ecumenical Giant of Christian Unity
Fr. Ray Ryland • 1/1/1996

A prime example was the Eastern attitude toward the emperor. In the confused minds of the Arians, Christ was a hybrid between man and God, neither fully human nor fully divine. In Eastern life, ” Caesaropapism, which was simply political Arianism, confused the temporal and spiritual powers without uniting them.” The emperor was regarded as something more than mere head of the state, but he was never seen as true head of the Church. In the minds and lives of Eastern Christians, religious society was compartmentalized and separated from secular society. The realm of religion was largely relegated to the monasteries. The public forum was given over to “pagan laws and passions.”

The result? “This so-called ‘orthodoxy’ of the Byzantines was in fact nothing but ingrown heresy.” At the heart of that “orthodoxy” was “a profound contradiction between professed orthodoxy and practical heresy.” That contradiction was “the Achilles’ heel of the Byzantine Empire.” It was the ultimate cause of the empire’s downfall.

The empire “deserved to fall.” Especially it deserved to fall before Islam. Why? Because Islam is “simply sincere and logical Byzantinism, free from all its inner contradictions.” Islam is in fact “the frank and full reaction of the spirit of the east against Christianity.”

The imperial heresies of the seventh and eighth centuries had prepared the way for the Moslem religion. The heresy of the Monothelites indirectly denied human freedom. Iconoclasm rejected the portrayal of the divine in any sensible form. These two errors constitute the essence of the religion of Islam, according to Soloviev.

The Moslem view “sees in man a finite form without freedom, and in God an infinite freedom without form.” God and man stand at opposite poles with no possibility of a filial relationship. Therefore in Moslem thought there is no possibility of the Incarnation or of persons becoming partakers of the divine nature. The Moslem religion posits “a mere external relation between the all-powerful Creator and the creature which is deprived of all freedom and owes its master nothing but a bare act of ‘blind surrender’ (for this is what the Arabic word Islam signifies).”

The Moslem religion has the advantage of simplicity. On the personal level, the act of surrender, repeated invariably each day at fixed hours, sums up “the religious background of the Eastern mind, which spoke its last word by the mouth of Mohammed.”

The Moslem perception of social and political concerns is equally simple. There is no real progress for the human race: “there is no moral regeneration for the individual and therefore a fortiori none for society; everything is brought down to the level of a purely natural existence.”

The only goal a Moslem society can have is to expand its material power and enjoy the good things of the earth. Its task is to spread Islam by force, if necessary, and to govern the faithful with absolute authority guided by the rules of justice set forth in the Koran. This, says Soloviev, is “a task which it would be difficult not to accomplish with success.”

Byzantinism in principle never seriously pursued Christian progress in social and political arenas. It relegated the affairs of the secular world entirely to the whims of the emperor. The Byzantine approach resulted in “reducing the whole of religion to a fact of past history, a dogmatic formula, and a liturgical ceremonial.” In fact, says Soloviev, Byzantinism was anti-Christian even though it wore “the mask of orthodoxy.” The whole enterprise “was bound to collapse in moral impotence before the open and sincere anti-Christianity of Islam.”


The reference is to another case that caused much talk in the past, the famous “Lautsi case,” named after the Finnish-born mother who in 2002 turned to the Veneto Regional Administrative Court because her children’s school rejected her proposal to remove crucifixes from classrooms. On that occasion, Vari recounts, “both the TAR and the Council of State [the Italian administrative court of appeal, NDR] established that the compulsory and exclusive display of the crucifix is compatible with the Italian Constitution, since it is not only a religious symbol but also a cultural one.” In particular, “the Council of State observed that while the crucifix may have a religious significance for believers, it does not have a discriminatory value for non-believers.”

But Ms. Lautsi then turned to the European Court of Human Rights, a court established in 1959, based in Strasbourg, France, after the “European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,” signed by 47 member States of the Council of Europe.

In 2009, the first ruling by a chamber of the European Court of Justice found in favor of Ms. Lautsi. But the Italian government appealed, supported by many other European states and non-governmental organizations. Finally, in 2011, the Grande Chamber, the highest level body of the European Court, overturned the previous ruling with the consensus of 15 out of 17 judges: displaying the crucifix in schools does not violate the freedom of education of non-believing parents.

The news made so much noise that even the then-director of the Vatican Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, made a statement: the European court, in his opinion, recognized not only that “the culture of human rights must not be placed in contradiction with the religious foundations of European civilization,” but also a principle of “subsidiarity”. In other words, every country has the right to evaluate the significance of religious symbols in its own cultural history, as well as the place of their display.
When Veneto’s Regional Administrative Tribunal rejected Ms. Lautsi’s request to remove crucifixes from schools in 2005, it also stated that “we are living in a time of tumultuous encounter with other cultures and, in order to prevent it from turning into a clash, it is essential to reaffirm our identity, even symbolically…”

Sixteen years later, the encounter with other cultures and religions in Italy has become even more tumultuous. Nevertheless, Professor Vari says, “I think that public opinion in Italy is overwhelmingly in favor of displaying the crucifix. Italian history has been intertwined with that of Christianity for thousands of years, as can be seen by visiting thousands of squares in our country. And I would say that almost every Italian is fully aware of this, as well as of the fact that in order to dialogue with others it is necessary to be aware of one’s own history and identity.’”

However, what is clear for the professor is not so evident to others. It is not by chance that Lautsi and Coppoli belonged to the Union of Agnostic, Atheists and Rationalist (UAAR). A few years ago, the UAAR launched a polemical campaign for the removal of crucifixes from public buildings under the motto ‘let’s de-crucifix Italy’. This did not prevent an Italian Catholic newspaper, a few years ago, from giving the UAAR’s honorary president, cartoonist Sergio Staino, a regular column every Sunday for his strange re-reading of Jesus in a very questionable and political way.

The last point is that following the September ruling by the Supreme Court, the wall of a school classroom may contain symbols that, unlike the crucifix, have no history in Italian culture. It will be interesting to see if the vandals will also have the courage to offend other religious symbols, including Muslim ones, as Islam has much less tolerant adherents.

{The other case mentioned here}
Nvertheless, the longest-running battles over crucifixes in Italian classrooms are undoubtedly legal ones. And a recent ruling has caused an uproar in the media, and is likely to spark new clashes rather than promote a truce.

The dispute was initiated twelve years ago (the Italian justice system is not known for speed) by Franco Coppoli, a teacher at a vocational high school in Terni, not far from Rome. He regularly removed the crucifix from the classroom wall before giving a lesson. The school’s headmaster punished him with a 30-day suspension from work. Coppoli invoked freedom of teaching and conscience, but he did not refrain from insulting the headmaster. The first court ruling proved the headmaster right. The Court of Appeals, the second level of Italian justice, also rejected Coppoli’s appeal against the suspension.

But he did not relent. On September 9, 2021, the Supreme Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court, also ruled on the case. The punishment imposed on Mr. Coppoli was tossed out. But his claim for damages was not upheld. The crucifix, as the ruling explains, is linked to “the lived experience of a community and the cultural tradition of a people”; so hanging it in schools does not go against the principles of secularism.

{CAtholic World report Continued controversy over crucifixes in Italian classrooms)

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Roman Catholic decline
Decades-long decline: Catholicism's decline in France can be traced to the mid-1960s and the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. While over 80% of French citizens identified as Catholic in the 1950s, more recent figures show a significant drop in adherence and practice. For example, in a 2020 INSEE survey, just 25% of French people aged 18 to 49 identified as Catholic.
Overall secularization: France has been experiencing a long-term trend of secularization. The percentage of French people with no religious affiliation is increasing, with nearly half of all French people identifying as non-religious in 2023.
Catholic decline: The number of French people identifying as Catholic is falling. Between 2010 and 2020, INSEE recorded a sharp decline in Catholicism among 18-to-49-year-olds.
Low birth rate: France's birth rate is at a historic low. In 2024, the number of births continued a downward trend that began in 2011. The country's fertility rate in 2023 was 1.68 children per woman, reaching its lowest level since the post-war era.
As the table shows, Catholicism saw a decrease from 43% to 25% among the 18-49 age group between 2009 and 2020. In contrast, the number of individuals with no religious affiliation increased from 45% to 53% in the same demographic. Islam also experienced a growth in adherence during this period, rising from 8% to 11%.


Jewish population decline
Decline in population: Studies show a decline in France's Jewish population, which is still the largest in Europe. In 1970, the population was estimated at 530,000, but by 2020, that number had dropped to 449,000.Estimated 480,000–550,000 (2023).
Emigration to Israel: A significant factor in the decline is emigration to Israel, known as aliyah. Between 2000 and 2020, more than 51,000 French Jews made aliyah, far more than any other Western European country. This trend intensified after 2012 following a series of antisemitic attacks.

Muslim rise
Pew research center Nov 29, 2017 — Both France and the UK are expected to be roughly 17% Muslim by 2050 in the medium scenario, several percentage points higher than they would .
6.8 million people (INSEE data)

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England
In England, the Christian population is declining while the Muslim population is rising. The Jewish population has remained relatively stable at a low percentage. These trends are documented in the 2021 census data for England and Wales.
Trends for major religious groups (England and Wales)
The most recent census data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows the following trends between 2011 and 2021:
Christianity: The number of people identifying as Christian fell from 33.3 million (59.3%) in 2011 to 27.5 million (46.2%) in 2021. This is the first time in a UK census that fewer than half the population identified as Christian.
No religion: The number of people reporting no religion surged from 14.1 million (25.2%) in 2011 to 22.2 million (37.2%) in 2021. This group saw the largest increase and is now the second most common response after Christian.
Islam: The Muslim population grew from 2.7 million (4.9%) in 2011 to 3.9 million (6.5%) in 2021, representing an increase of 44%.
Judaism: The Jewish population saw a slight increase in absolute numbers, from 265,000 in 2011 to 271,000 in 2021. However, as a percentage of the overall population, it has remained steady at around 0.5%.
Hinduism: This group also saw an increase, from 818,000 (1.5%) in 2011 to just over 1 million (1.7%) in 2021.

Data confirms that Germany's Christian and Jewish populations are declining, while the Muslim population is increasing. The largest religious shift, however, is the significant rise of people with no religious affiliation, who now constitute the largest single group in the country.

Shrinking membership: For the first time in 2024, the number of people with no religious affiliation officially surpassed the combined membership of Germany's Protestant (EKD) and Roman Catholic churches.
Mass departures: In 2024, both major Christian churches each lost approximately 580,000 members. This marks the fourth time in recent years that over one million people have left the two churches in a single year.



Recent demographic decline: A 2020 study noted that Germany's Jewish community was in a "terminal" state of demographic decline, with a very high percentage of its members over the age of 65 and a small percentage under 15. This suggests that without continued immigration, the population will shrink due to low birth rates and high death rates.


2024 data: In 2024, the Muslim population increased by approximately 80,000 people, according to data from asylum applications.

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In both Belgium and Poland, Christianity is declining, while the Muslim population is rising. The small Jewish community in Poland continues its long-term decline, whereas in Belgium, the Jewish population is either stable or experiencing slight growth, primarily due to its Orthodox community.
Belgium
Christianity
The majority of Belgians are Roman Catholic, but the percentage of Catholics has steadily fallen.
Data from 2018 indicated that 57.1% of residents were Roman Catholic, but by 2023, another estimate showed Christians, in total, representing only 34% of the population. This points to a significant decrease in affiliation.
Islam
Belgium's Muslim population is growing due to immigration and higher fertility rates.
While some public estimates overestimate the size of the Muslim population, sources suggest it has grown from roughly 6% in 2011 to around 6.8% in 2018, with projections predicting it will make up over 10% of the population by 2030.

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Yes, Christian and Jewish populations are declining in Europe, while Islam is rising, a trend driven by religious disaffiliation, lower fertility rates among Christians, and migration. Between 2010 and 2020, Europe's Christian population dropped by 9%, and the number of Jews decreased by 8%. In contrast, the Muslim population in Europe increased by 16% during the same decade. A significant portion of this growth is attributed to migration, especially into countries like Sweden, Austria, and Germany.

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In Scandinavia, Christianity and Judaism are declining while Islam is rising, primarily due to secularization among native populations and immigration patterns. While Christianity remains the largest religion in Scandinavia, the number of people affiliated with it continues to fall.

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In Russia, the Jewish population has seen a significant decline, while the Muslim population is a fast-growing demographic due to higher birth rates and migration. The Christian population, predominantly Orthodox, has seen an increase in nominal affiliation since the Soviet era but low active participation, and the overall Christian population is decreasing due to a rise in irreligion and low birth rates.

In Turkey, the percentage of Christians and Jews has been in a long-term decline, a trend that accelerated during the 20th century. Historically, Islam has dominated the region, and today, Turkey's population is overwhelmingly Muslim, though contemporary studies indicate growing secularism, especially among the youth.

In Bulgaria, Christianity has been declining, while Islam has slightly decreased but the Muslim population is young. The Jewish population has been in sharp decline due to emigration. In Romania, Christianity is still dominant, but both the Christian and Jewish populations have declined. The Muslim population is growing, though it still makes up a very small percentage of the population.

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In the Netherlands, the Christian population has been declining for decades, the Jewish population is aging but is being stabilized by immigration, and the Muslim population has been growing and is notably increasing among youth. The fastest-growing demographic, however, is the non-religious population, which now represents the majority of Dutch adults.