Christians make up almost half of the world’s population. 280 million migrants, followed by a significant number of Muslims, agnostics and atheists, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.

The report, “The Religious Composition of the World’s Migrants,” published in August, presents an analysis of 270 census and United Nations data collected through 2020, the most recent year for which global data are available. The study looks at changes in global migration, migration by region, and how Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and the unaffiliated are represented in migration figures.

“Christians make up a much larger share of migrants (47%) than of the world population (30%). Mexico is the most common country of origin for Christian migrants and the United States is their most common destination,” closely followed by Germany and Russia, the report says.

Muslims also make up a larger proportion of migrants (29%) than the world population (25%). The Pew report shows that Syria is the most common country of origin for Muslim migrants and Muslims often move to the Middle East-North Africa region, for example to Saudi Arabia.

The proportion of Jews who have emigrated (1%) far exceeds the proportion of Jews in the world population (0.2%), and their most common destination is Israel.

The report states: “In percentage terms, this means that Jews are more likely to live outside their country of birth than people of other major religious groups in the world. Two in 10 Jews had crossed national borders by 2020, compared with smaller shares among Christians (6%), Muslims (4%), Buddhists (2%), people with no religious affiliation (2%) and Hindus (1%).”

On the other hand, Hindus constitute 5% of migrants despite making up 15% of the world’s population, while Buddhists constitute 4% of international migrants and 4% of the world’s population. While India is the most common country of origin and destination for Hindus, for Buddhists, Myanmar is the place of origin of most migrants and Thailand is the most common destination.

Agnostics, atheists and other non-religious people make up 23% of the world’s population and 13% of migrants, the report says. “China is the most common country of origin for religiously unaffiliated migrants, and the United States is their most common destination.”

The total number of international migrants increased from 153 million to 281 million between 1990 and 2020, an increase of 83 percent compared to the 47 percent increase in the world population. However, the religious composition of migrants remained largely stable over these three decades.

“While the religious composition migration flows can change dramatically from year to year — due to wars, economic crises and natural disasters — the total share of migrants is changing more slowly and reflects patterns that have accumulated over time,” the report says.

The study documents a sharp increase in the number of Christian migrants (from 72.7 million to 130.9 million) during the 30-year period examined, while the number of Muslim migrants increased from 39.9 million to 80.4 million. The number of religiously unaffiliated migrants worldwide rose from 21.8 million to 36.4 million during this period, and the number of Buddhist migrants jumped from 4.6 million to 10.9 million.

“The religious composition “The global migrant population has not changed dramatically for several decades,” the report says. “This is largely because the size of individual migrant populations was so unequal in 1990. Even though migrant populations have grown at different rates in recent decades, their composition in 2020 still reflects the large differences in their original size in 1990.”

Among Christians in Russia (8 million) and the Philippines (5.2 million) are the second and third most common countries of origin for Christian migrants, after Mexico (11 million). Next are Ukraine (4.6 million), Venezuela (4.6 million) and Poland (4 million). The main destination countries include the United States (35 million), Germany (8.4 million), Russia (7 million) and the United Kingdom (5 million).

“Perhaps surprisingly, India is another common place of origin for Christian migrants, with over 3 million coming from there,” the report said. “Christians are a tiny minority in India, but given the country’s large population, there are tens of millions of Christians born in India. Moreover, India is one of many countries where emigrants are disproportionately likely to be from a religious minority. Christians make up 2% of India’s population, but an estimated 16% of all people born in India who now live elsewhere.”