I've got a new piece up at The Pillar which was very interesting to work on, in that I both learned several things I hadn't realized before about world demographics and I learned some new technical and data visualization skills.
The topic is the demography of African Catholicism, and no we couldn't help entitling it "Demography Reigns Down in Africa".
There are two key things to understand about why Africa will be a key part of the face of global Christianity in the coming decades.
First, is that Africa converted to Christianity rapidly during the first half of the 20th century. In 1900 Africa was only 9% Christian, despite a history of Christianity on the continent dating back to not long after the apostles. By 1970, 40% of the population was Christian. Today, Christians make up 50% of Africans (42% are Muslim and 8% follow indigenous religious traditions.) Catholicism has been a significant part of that growth. In 1900 2% of the population was Catholic. By 1970 it was 12% and today 18% of Africans are Catholic.
Second, however, is the unique demographic growth of Africa. Commentators used to talk about the Global South as one overall phenomenon, but today Africa stands apart from all all regions as the only continent with a fertility rate significantly above the replacement level. As a result, Africa will become an increasingly large player in all aspects of the world in the coming decades, from the global workforce to the Catholic Church.
There's a lot of detail in the article, and of course I recommend subscribing to The Pillar if you haven't done so already. Although a paid subscription helps support our work, you still get all the articles with a free subscription and simply having more subscribers helps us too!
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