One in four people now Muslim
Thursday October 08 2009
The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning nearly one in four people in the world practice Islam, according to a report billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from one billion to 1.8 billion.
The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some.
For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
Pew officials call the report the most thorough on the size and distribution of adherents of the world's second largest religion behind Christianity, which has an estimated 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion followers.
The report provides further evidence that while the heart of Islam might beat in the Middle East, its greatest numbers lie in Asia where more than 60pc of the world's Muslims live.
africa
About 20pc live in the Middle East and North Africa, 15pc live in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2.4pc are in Europe and 0.3pc are in the Americas.
While the Middle East and North Africa have fewer Muslims overall than Asia, the region easily claims the most Muslim-majority countries.
While those population trends are well established, the large numbers of Muslims who live as minorities in countries aren't as scrutinised. The report identified about 317 million Muslims -- or one-fifth of the world's Muslim population -- living in countries where Islam is not the majority religion.
About three-quarters of Muslims living as minorities are concentrated in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).
A similar study on global Christianity is planned to begin next year.
hnews@herald.ie
