Religious Demography of Emerging Economies Age structures and fertility in the BRIC countries and the global religious consequences of their economic growth

In spite of the generally large interest in demography of religious communities and the relation between population dynamics and various aspects of socio-economic life (for example economic development and social inequalities), there has until now not been any attempt to collect and estimate religious composition by age and sex as well as differences in fertility for all countries in the world. This kind of data could add another perspective in the studies on future interactions between religion and other spheres of life. The aim of this paper is to present current and future religious compositions and fertility differentials by religion in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), and possible implications of demographic change on division of wealth between religious communities in the world. A detailed account of the religious demography of the world by age and sex has for the first time been documented in an ongoing joint project of Age and Cohort Change Project at International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) and the Forum on Religion & Public Life at Pew Research Center. These data form some of the basis for the present work. Several studies emphasize the relation between religion and economic performance, both on the individual as well as the aggregated level. In M. Weber’s classic sociological text The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism it is argued that religion can affect economic outcomes, i.e., that work ethics deriving from Protestantism raises workers productive performance and increases economic growth. Although many have since studied whether religion actually affects economic productivity, the impact of economic levels on the global importance of different religions has so far received relatively little academic attention. Also the demographic dynamics of religious communities have not been focused on in this context.