The Future of Christianity is Female – and African

At the start of 2019, Bill and Melinda Gates released a list of facts that had surprised them the previous year. Number four on their list: "Data can be sexist." "There are huge gaps in the global data about women and girls," they explained. My interest was piqued -- not only as a demographer, but as a woman and mother of girls. I research women in global Christianity and am frequently asked what percentage of the religion is female. The short answer is 52%. But the long answer is more complicated -- women make up a much more substantial part of Christianity than that number makes it seem.