Professor Eric Kaufmann:
“The cumulative effect of immigration from religious countries, and religious fertility will be to reverse the secularization process in the West. Not only will the religious eventually triumph over the non-religious, but it is those who are the most extreme in their beliefs who have the largest families.”
As we have often argued on these pages—demography is it—change the people in order to change the future of nations (ours being of particular concern to me!).
We know that some demographers have argued that fecund people—like Muslims and Hispanics—reduce the number of children they have as they become more prosperous and live in first world countries, but this London demographer (raised in Canada) doesn’t see that—even if reduced slightly, the birthrate of religious people still outpaces the secularists.
Read this fascinating analysis of London Professor Kaufmann’s work at the Vancouver Sun where the photo above catches one’s eye for sure!
Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and other well-known atheists consider the decline of religion inevitable as the global population becomes more secular, more educated and more urban.
Last month, a Pew Research poll in the U.S., the world’s most-religious industrialized nation, revealed that three out of four Americans also agree religion appears to be in retreat.
But is it? While secularists are making some inroads in North America and Europe, the new atheists and others are missing a crucial demographic shift as the world’s population has swelled to seven billion.
Those who believe the world is inexorably becoming more secular are overlooking the rise in the developing world of Muslims, Hindus, Catholics and Pentecostals, as well as the phenomenally rapid expansion of sects such as the Amish and ultra-Orthodox Jews.
In a challenge to the secularizing proposition, Eric Kaufmann, a noted London-based demographer, projects that religious people, especially conservatives, will win the race against the non-religious in the 21st century.
Why? Basically because religious women are having far more babies than secular women.
Read on. There is a lot more. By the way, I’m afraid that all those non-Muslim religious people (noted by the Professor) combined will not out produce Muslims since their numbers are so much greater to begin with! I guess Professor Kaufmann isn’t going to tell us that.
The Vancouver Sun directs us to an older story about how immigrants high birthrates affect Canadian taxpayers, here.