Rapid Growth Of Christianity In Africa

Africa has recently surpassed Latin America (South and Central America plus Mexico) as the largest population of Christians in the world with an estimated 631 million compared to Latin America's 601 million. 

The majority of the African Christian population is found in sub-Saharan Africa with Islam claiming a huge northern swath of the continent. 

Though precise numbers are not easy to ascertain, the growth in Africa appears to be remarkably fast with an estimated 2017 Christian population of 582 million. Latin America increased from 591 million to 601 million while other continents, such as Asia and Oceania, remained relatively constant.

Europe is estimated to be home to 577 million and the US and Canada together account for 277 million Christians. The demographic shift towards the southern half of the globe has been quite remarkable, due in some part to missionary outreach efforts but attributed primarily to overall population increases. 

In 1900, Europe represented fully one quarter of the total world population, but estimates put it closer to 8% by 2050, following more than a century of explosive growth in both Asia and Africa. Christians in sub-Saharan Africa tend to have more children than Americans or Europeans and the percentage of believers in several African nations is extraordinarily high.

Zambia, according to reports by CBS News, is 95.5% Christian and the Republic of Seychelles is nearly as strong at 94.7%. Rwanda, Swaziland, South Africa, Namibia, Gabon, Lesotho and Uganda all have Christian populations over 85% now as well. 

More than a dozen more African countries have Christians above 40%, and with the population of Nigeria alone, currently at 196 million in 2018, that 46% Christian demographic represents more than 90 million believers, equal to the total population of the UK and Australia (across all faiths) combined.

The often-cited prediction that by the year 2050, there will be three Africans for every European may also be misleading since the Europeans of 2050 won't be the same as we might imagine now, and neither will the Africans. In 2050, Europe is likely to have seen its Christian population contract while its atheist and Muslim populations increase. 

Ethnically, many of the Europeans of 2050 will trace their culture and ancestry to Africa, owing to waves of migration that have been rebalancing the continent’s population by the tens of millions for the past two decades and will continue to do so. So, the European of 2050, who will be outnumbered 3 to 1 by Africans, may himself be a Christian of African descent living in Europe.

The Muslim population is also growing across Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated to surpass the Middle East in the next 20 years. Yet it is Christianity that offers the greatest Hope in a continent that continues its struggle to find its way. 

In another 50 years, the center of Christianity may no longer be Europe or Latin America and the face of Protestants and Catholics alike may be African. Already Nigerian churches have established missionary outreaches and founded satellite locations in the UK to expand their faith as they try to spark a Christian revival in the North.

Demographic forces can shift, and thirty years is a very long time frame across which to predict global population changes, but all the evidence points to a continued rapid growth of Christianity in Africa and a shift in the balance of the faith from the North of the globe to the South.