Research center Pew Research estimates that by 2060 the number of unaffiliated people (this includes atheists, agnostics and those who do not consider themselves followers of any particular religion) will be approximately 1.2 billion people (now there are 1.17 billion). Although, according to the same forecast, this group will not grow as fast as the number of believers.
“Currently, the disbelievers-they are the third largest group of the population from the standpoint of religious belief, says Lois Lee. And we don’t even have a special term to describe these people — only through negation.”
“In some countries, the governments often perceive atheists as a small group of the population. But it is precisely because of the possible threats they will encounter, many non-religious people can’t publicly call themselves atheists. Therefore, they often do not notice”, — said the Executive Director of IHEU Gary Maklelland.
I still tend to think that the actual numbers are higher than those that have been polled. I know a hand full of people that call themselves liberal Christians and they cheery pick from their holy book and ignore/disregard many other things that are in it. I also think their are many who will use the term cultural Christian and other than that have nothing to do with it.
As much as I desire the world's population dump superstitious dogma that empowers a few to control the ignorant masses, A lot could happen in the next 42 years. With our current environmental (global warming) positive feedback loops under-way and ever raising populations, I do not anticipate the current model for the rate of change of theist/atheist can be accurately predicted. I really hope I am wrong but I anticipate a descent into a dystopia and the inevitable raise of the Crisis Cult mentality will increase and embolden the number of desperate people seeking help from their supernatural sky-daddy/s.
We never know what the future holds or what catalyst will appear to change it. Most folks would have not foreseen the change in general attitude toward LGBT community coming as quickly as it did. There might be a chance that attitudes on guns could change because of the outspokenness of the high-schoolers in Florida. What if anything will change the poll numbers on 45? Polls can tell us where we are today but they can't predict where we will be tomorrow other than giving us historical trends. Shit happens that change trends.