Spread Event

The Global South Shift in Christianity's Center of Gravity

Christianity

Origin to 2010

Around 1910, close to two-thirds of the world's Christians lived in Europe. A century later the balance had reversed entirely: by 2010 the Global South, Africa, Latin America and Asia together, held a clear majority of the world's Christian population, roughly sixty-one percent against Europe and North America's thirty-nine. Africa's own Christian population grew from an estimated ten million in 1900 to several hundred million by the early twenty-first century, the single largest component of the wider shift; the Catholic population specifically is estimated to have passed fifty percent Southern by 1970. No single country anchors a shift this diffuse; Africa is used here as the largest single component of it, and that choice is named as a simplification rather than a claim that the shift belongs to Africa alone.

Facts

Disputed

Start Year

from 1910 1

No single crossover year is agreed in the demographic literature for when the Global South's Christian population overtook Europe and North America's; 1910 marks the approximate starting point most often cited, when close to two-thirds of Christians still lived in Europe, while 2010 marks the point at which the Pew Research Center's own detailed survey found the Global South holding a clear majority. The transition between those two dates was gradual and continuous rather than a single dated event.

Dates

End Year

to 2010 1

2010 is the year of the Pew Research Center's own Global Christianity report, which found the Global South, Africa, Latin America and Asia together, holding roughly sixty-one percent of the world's Christian population against Europe and North America's thirty-nine.

Status

Dominant 1

Learn More

How Christianity's Center Shifted to the Global South

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Around 1910, close to two thirds of the world's Christians lived in Europe. A century later the balance had reversed entirely: by 2010 the Global South, Africa, Latin America and Asia together, held a clear majority of the world's Christian population, roughly sixty one percent against thirty nine for Europe and North America combined.

Africa's own Christian population drove the largest single share of that reversal, growing from an estimated ten million believers in 1900 to several hundred million by the early twenty first century. The shift was not confined to one church or communion: the Catholic population specifically is estimated to have passed fifty percent Southern by 1970, four decades ahead of the wider Christian population crossing the same line.

No single country anchors a change this diffuse, spread as it was across Africa, Latin America and Asia at once. Africa is used here as the largest single component of the shift, and that choice is named plainly as a simplification rather than a claim that the change belongs to Africa alone. What this changed for Christianity's spread was a full reversal of where the faith's center of gravity sat: a religion whose numerical weight had rested in Europe for most of its history moved, within one century, to rest mostly in the Global South instead.

Connections

Associated With

Americas

This source names Americas directly: "Around 1910, close to two-thirds of the world's Christians lived in Europe."