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The percentage of the [[Nones|unaffiliated]] in Asia Pacific—home to about 76% of the world’s unaffiliated—will fall to 17% in 2050 from 21%, Pew estimates. ...this drop in Asia and the growth of religious communities elsewhere will mean the unaffiliated will make up only 13% of the world’s population in 2050, down from 16% in 2010.<ref>[http://qz.com/377065/across-the-asia-pacific-the-population-of-atheists-and-agnostics-is-shrinking/ Across the Asia Pacific, the population of atheists and agnostics is shrinking]</ref>}}
The percentage of the [[Nones|unaffiliated]] in Asia Pacific—home to about 76% of the world’s unaffiliated—will fall to 17% in 2050 from 21%, Pew estimates. ...this drop in Asia and the growth of religious communities elsewhere will mean the unaffiliated will make up only 13% of the world’s population in 2050, down from 16% in 2010.<ref>[http://qz.com/377065/across-the-asia-pacific-the-population-of-atheists-and-agnostics-is-shrinking/ Across the Asia Pacific, the population of atheists and agnostics is shrinking]</ref>}}
== Growth of Christianity in China ==
[[File:Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square in Beijing China.jpg|thumb|right|200px|In front of the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.]]
''See also:'' [[Growth of Christianity in China]]
According to ''Slate'', "[[Protestantism|Protestant]] Christianity has been the fastest growing religion in China."<ref>[http://www.slate.com/bigideas/what-is-the-future-of-religion/essays-and-opinions/fenggang-yang-opinion When Will China Become the World’s Largest Christian Country?], Slate</ref> [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical Christianity]] is especially growing sharply in China.<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2015/0111/In-China-a-church-state-showdown-of-biblical-proportions In China, a church-state showdown of biblical proportions]</ref>
On November 1, 2014, an article in ''The Economist'' entitled ''Cracks in the atheist edifice'' declared:
{{cquote|Officials are untroubled by the clash between the city’s famously freewheeling capitalism and the [[Communism|Communist]] Party’s ideology, yet still see religion and its symbols as affronts to the party’s [[atheism]]...
Yang Fenggang of Purdue University, in Indiana, says the Christian church in China has grown by an average of 10% a year since 1980. He reckons that on current trends there will be 250m Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Mr. Yang says this speed of growth is similar to that seen in fourth-century Rome just before the conversion of [[Constantine]], which paved the way for Christianity to become the religion of his empire.<ref>[http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21629218-rapid-spread-christianity-forcing-official-rethink-religion-cracks ''Cracks in the atheist edifice''], ''The Economist'', November 1, 2014</ref>}}
On April 19, 2014 ''The Telegraph'' published a story on the growth of [[Christianity]] in [[China]] which stated:
{{cquote|The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America....
Officially, the People's Republic of China is an [[Atheism|atheist]] country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.
Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the [[Cultural Revolution]].
Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation....
China's [[Protestantism|Protestant]] community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.
By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.
"[[Mao Zedong|Mao]] thought he could eliminate [[religion]]. He thought he had accomplished this," Prof Yang said. "It's ironic – they didn't. They actually failed completely."<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html China on course to become 'world's most Christian nation' within 15 years]</ref>}}
== Notes ==
== Notes ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
[[Category: Atheism]]
[[Category: Atheism]]
[[Category: Desecularization]]
[[Category: Desecularization]]