The Pew Research Center 2017 report indicates the minimal impact of religious switching on projected demographic changes. Most religious switching occurs from Christianity to religiously unaffiliated, with a very small amount of demographic change generated by conversion from Christianity to Islam. According to the report, “the net impact of religious switching [from 2010 to 2015] accounted for an estimated 23% of unaffiliated growth and 0.3% of Muslim growth while reducing Christian growth by 7%.” (p. 7). Overall, religious switching from 2010–15 led to a -9.0 million decrease in the number of Christians worldwide, a +0.5 increase in Muslims, and a +8.0 million increase in religiously unaffiliated.

XREF: Connects to broader literature on the rise of the religiously unaffiliated and global secularization trends. DEFINE: Clarifies the scale of religious switching's demographic impact relative to other drivers like fertility and migration.

Margaret Hodson, Baby Jihad, loc. 32