International religious diversity ranked

Singapore is the most religiously diverse place in the world, while Christianity is the most widely distributed major religion, according to new research, which could see Africa and Asia "define the future of Christianity".

A new study carried out by Pew Research on global religious diversity revealed the Asia–Pacific and sub-Saharan African regions are the world’s most diverse areas, while most of the world’s population lives in areas featuring moderate diversity. Regionally, it ranked North America and Europe as highly diverse, while Middle East–North Africa featured low diversity due to strong Muslim representation.

The study, which ranked 201 countries and territories and assessed geographic trends, ranked Suriname and Taiwan as the second and third most diverse nations, while France was the only European nation in the top ten, sitting behind ninth-placed Australia. It also found Christianity to be the "most widely distributed" of the seven categories, above Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, all other religions and unaffiliated.

Commenting on the research, Israel Oluwole Olofinjana, of the Evangelical Alliance, told en that it is "no surprise" to see Christianity as a major contributor to many of the top ten nations, due to the faith’s recent "shift" towards "Majority World" nations, spanning Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.

He said: "Many of the global statistics confirm that Africa has the largest concentration of Christians in the world, and some would argue that the continents that would shape the future of Christianity are Africa and Asia.

"One implication of this is that if Africa and Asia will define the future of Christianity and seven of the ten most religiously diverse places are located in Africa and Asia, what can the global church learn from African and Asian Christianity in terms of religious pluralism and engaging other religious traditions, or what lessons could be drawn from these diverse contexts?"