Claims about where Christianity is “growing fastest” depend on what is being measured. A country can gain Christians in absolute numbers while Christianity declines as a share of the population, and a small country can show a large percentage change from a modest starting point. For that reason, Spiritual Culture no longer presents this topic as an unsupported Top 10 ranking.
The most comprehensive recent global comparison from Pew Research Center covers the period from 2010 to 2020. It is based on more than 2,700 censuses, surveys, population registers, and other sources across 201 countries and territories.
Christianity grew in number but declined in global share
Pew estimates that the number of Christians worldwide rose from about 2.1 billion in 2010 to 2.3 billion in 2020, an increase of roughly 122 million people. Yet the world population grew faster. Christianity therefore fell from about 31% to 29% of the global population.
Those two statements are not contradictory. They illustrate why “growth” must distinguish between absolute population growth and change in population share.
The geographic center of Christianity continued to shift
Sub-Saharan Africa surpassed Europe as the region containing the largest share of the world’s Christians. By 2020, Pew estimated that sub-Saharan Africa was home to about 31% of all Christians, compared with about 22% in Europe. Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for about 24%, while North America accounted for about 10%.
This shift reflects population growth, age structure, migration, religious switching, and the long-term expansion of Christian communities outside Christianity’s historic European centers.
Which country increased most as a share?
Pew highlights countries where the share of a religious group changed by at least five percentage points. Under that specific threshold, Mozambique was the only country where the Christian share increased substantially from 2010 to 2020, rising by about five percentage points to roughly 61% of the population.
That does not mean Mozambique was the only country where the number of Christians increased. It means it was the only country in Pew’s analysis where Christianity’s share of the national population rose by at least five percentage points.
Why older “fastest-growing” lists can mislead
- Different metrics produce different rankings. Total Christians, annual growth rate, share of population, converts, births, and church attendance are not the same measure.
- Hidden or unregistered communities are difficult to count. Estimates may be especially uncertain where religion is politically sensitive.
- Population growth is not the same as conversion. Births, deaths, migration, and switching all affect totals.
- Survey identity is not identical to practice. Someone may identify as Christian without regular church attendance, while another person may participate in a Christian community but be difficult to capture in official data.
What the 2010–2020 data actually supports
The strongest conclusion is not a sensational country ranking. Christianity remained the world’s largest religious group in 2020 and grew in absolute numbers, but it did not keep pace with global population growth. At the same time, the geographic center of Christianity continued moving toward sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the Global South.
