Islam has now become the fastest-growing religion in the world, gaining more followers than any other religion in the past ten years, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center.

Between 2010 and 2020, the global Muslim population rose by 347 million, marking a major demographic shift in the global religious makeup.

The report stated that this growth was mainly driven by population increase rather than religious conversion.

Christianity continues to be the most widely followed religion in the world, but its share of the global population has slightly declined, whereas the numbers of Muslims and those without any religious affiliation have gone up.

Hinduism grew at almost the same pace as the global population, reaching 1.2 billion followers by 2020, with 95 per cent of them living in India.

In 2020, Hindus made up 79 per cent of India's population, a small drop from 80 per cent in 2010, while the Muslim share in the country rose from 14.3 per cent in 2010 to 15.2 per cent in 2020, according to the report titled "How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020."

On a global scale, people with no religious affiliation, referred to as "nones," were the only group apart from Muslims whose share of the population increased, rising by 270 million to reach 1.9 billion.

The share of "nones" went up by almost a full percentage point to reach 24.2 per cent.