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http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23458302-948,00.html
Muslims outnumber Catholics for first time in history
From correspondents in Vatican City
March 31, 2008 05:56am
ISLAM has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, according to the vatican.
Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's 2008 yearbook, said Muslims made up 19.2 per cent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 per cent.
"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top - the Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Formenti told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, saying the data referred to 2006.
He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 per cent of the world's population - or about two billion people.
The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion.
Monsignor Formenti said that while the number of Catholics as a proportion of the world's population was fairly stable, the percentage of Muslims was growing because of higher birth rates.
He said the data on Muslim populations had been compiled by individual countries and then released by the United Nations, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own statistics.
Muslims outnumber Catholics for first time in history
From correspondents in Vatican City
March 31, 2008 05:56am
ISLAM has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, according to the vatican.
Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's 2008 yearbook, said Muslims made up 19.2 per cent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 per cent.
"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top - the Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Formenti told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, saying the data referred to 2006.
He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 per cent of the world's population - or about two billion people.
The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion.
Monsignor Formenti said that while the number of Catholics as a proportion of the world's population was fairly stable, the percentage of Muslims was growing because of higher birth rates.
He said the data on Muslim populations had been compiled by individual countries and then released by the United Nations, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own statistics.