☪️ Northern Africa is Muslim, sub-Saharan Africa is Christian ✝️

What We’re Showing

A map of the largest religious group in every African country (by % of the population), per data from the U.S. State Department (2022).

Key Takeaways

• Broadly speaking, Northern Africa is heavily Muslim, and sub-Saharan Africa heavily Christian
• The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates spread Islam through their conquests along the northern edge of Africa
• While Christianity had already spread to the continent in the first century AD, 15th century European colonial missions spread it far wider across sub-Saharan Africa
• Eritrea may be an even split between the two, though some estimates give it a Muslim majority, and some a Christian majority