A new report by the Pew Research Center shows that the number of countries where Christianity is the majority has declined from 2010 to 2020.
As of 2020, Christians remained the majority in 120 out of 201 countries and territories analyzed, down from 124 in 2010. This means Christian-majority nations accounted for 60% of all countries surveyed, compared to 62% a decade earlier.
The most notable shifts took place in the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and Uruguay — all of which “lost their Christian majorities during the 10-year span. In these countries, the share of people identifying as Christian fell below 50%, while the percentage of religiously unaffiliated individuals rose substantially.
Uruguay became the only country in the Americas without a Christian majority by 2020, with 52% of its population identifying as religiously unaffiliated and only 44% as Christian.
In the U.K., Australia, and France, no single religious group held a majority, but the unaffiliated populations approached or surpassed the number of Christians, indicating broader secularization trends.
New Zealand and the Netherlands also shifted to having religiously unaffiliated majorities during this period. They joined a group of seven nations that already held that status in 2010, which included China, North Korea, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Macao, and Japan.
Overall, Pew found that 10 countries had religiously unaffiliated majorities by 2020, an increase from seven in 2010. These populations include individuals who identify as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular.
The report emphasized that while Christianity remains the most geographically widespread religion, its proportion of the global population is smaller than the share of countries where Christians form the majority.
In 2020, Christians represented 29% of the world’s population but were the majority in 60% of countries. This disparity highlights Christianity’s broad dispersion across both large and small nations — from the United States and the Philippines to smaller nations like Micronesia.
In comparison, other major religions such as Hinduism and Islam had majority populations in fewer countries, more closely aligned with their share of the global population. Hindus, who made up 15% of the world’s population, held majorities in just two countries: India and Nepal. Meanwhile, Muslims were the majority in 53 countries, and Buddhists in seven.
The number of countries with “no clear religious majority” also saw a slight increase, rising from six in 2010 to seven in 2020. These included South Korea, Singapore, Ivory Coast, and Mauritius, along with the UK, Australia and France — all of which had lost their Christian majorities during the decade.
