Religion in Africa

The claim that Islam is Africa’s largest religion does not match recent Pew estimates. In 2020, Christians made up about 46.8% of the continent’s population and Muslims 42.3%, making Christianity the largest religious affiliation and Islam the second largest. Muslims are the majority in North Africa, while Christians are the majority overall in sub-Saharan Africa; these regional averages conceal substantial country-level differences. These are estimates of religious affiliation, not measures of practice or personal belief.