The number of nations with Christian majorities declined between 2010 and 2020, in line with a recent report by the Pew Research Center, highlighting a notable shift in global religious affiliation.
As of 2020, Christians remained the bulk in 120 out of 201 countries and territories analyzed, down from 124 in 2010. That means Christian-majority nations accounted for 60% of all countries surveyed, in comparison with 62% a decade earlier. The decline is basically attributed to a growing number of individuals leaving Christianity, contributing to the rise of religiously unaffiliated populations in multiple nations.
The most vital changes occurred within the UK, Australia, France and Uruguay — all of which lost their Christian majorities through the 10-year span. In these nations, the share of individuals identifying as Christian fell below 50%, while the share of religiously unaffiliated individuals rose substantially.
Uruguay became the one country within the Americas with out a Christian majority by 2020, with 52% of its population identifying as religiously unaffiliated and only 44% as Christian. In the UK, Australia and France, no single religious group held a majority. However, unaffiliated populations approached or surpassed the variety of Christians, reflecting broader secularization trends.
Two other countries — New Zealand and the Netherlands — also transitioned to religiously unaffiliated majorities through the same period, joining a bunch of seven nations that already held that status in 2010: China, North Korea, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Macao and Japan.
In total, Pew found that 10 countries had religiously unaffiliated majorities by 2020, up from seven in 2010. These populations include individuals who discover as atheist, agnostic or “nothing specifically.”
The report noted that while Christianity stays essentially the most geographically widespread religion, its proportion of the worldwide population is smaller than the share of nations where Christians form the bulk. In 2020, Christians represented 29% of the world’s population but were the bulk in 60% of nations. This contrast reflects Christianity’s broad dispersion across each large and small nations — from the United States and the Philippines to smaller nations like Micronesia.
By comparison, other major world religions resembling Hinduism and Islam had majority populations in fewer countries, more closely aligned with their share of the worldwide population. Hindus, who made up 15% of the world’s population, held majorities in only two countries: India and Nepal. Muslims were the bulk in 53 countries, and Buddhists in seven.
The number of nations with no clear religious majority also increased barely, rising from six in 2010 to seven in 2020. These included South Korea, Singapore, Ivory Coast, and Mauritius, together with the UK, Australia and France — countries that had lost their Christian majorities through the decade.
The findings reflect a growing global trend toward religious disaffiliation, particularly in traditionally Christian countries. Pew’s data suggests that while Christianity stays numerically widespread, its cultural and institutional influence is declining in some parts of the world.
The report relies on population data and estimates of non secular affiliation collected from a wide selection of sources, reflecting a broad demographic overview of worldwide religious change.
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