Adherents of Islam constitute the world's second largest religious group. According to a study in 2015, Islam has 1.8 billion adherents, making up about 24% of the world population. Most Muslims are either of two denominations: Sunni (80-90%, roughly 1.5 billion people) or Shia (10-20%, roughly 170-340 million people). Islam is the dominant religion in the Central Asia, Indonesia, Middle East, South Asia, North Africa, the Sahel and some other parts of Asia. The diverse Asia-Pacific region contains the highest number of Muslims in the world, easily surpassing the Middle East and North Africa.
About 31% of all Muslims are of South Asian origin, therefore South Asia contains the largest population of Muslims in the world. Within this region, however, Muslims are second in numbers to Hindus, as Muslims are a majority in Pakistan and Bangladesh, but not India.
The various Hamito-Semitic (including Arab, Berber), Turkic, and Iranic countries of the greater Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region, where Islam is the dominant religion in all countries other than Israel, hosts 23% of world Muslims.
The country with the single largest population of Muslims is Indonesia in Southeast Asia, which on its own hosts 13% of the world's Muslims. Together, the Muslims in the countries of Southeast Asia constitute the world's third largest population of Muslims. In the countries of the Malay Archipelago Muslims are majorities in each country other than Singapore, the Philippines, and East Timor.
About 15% of Muslims reside in Sub-Saharan Africa, and sizeable Muslim communities are also found in the Americas, the Caucasus, China, Europe, the Philippines and Russia.
Western Europe hosts many Muslim immigrant communities where Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity, where it represents 6% of the total population or 24 million people. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world.
Video Islam by country
Denominations
Historically, Islam was divided into two major religious denominations: Sunni and Shi'a. Of the total Muslim population, 87-90% are Sunni and 10-13% are Shi'a. Most Shi'as (between 68% and 80%) live in mainly four countries: Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Iraq. Today, many of the Shia sects are extinct. The major surviving Imamah-Muslim Sects are Usulism (with nearly more than 10%), Nizari Ismailism (with nearly more than 1%) and Alevism (with slightly more than 0.5% but less than 1%). The other existing groups include Zaydi Shi'a of Yemen whose population is nearly more than 0.5% of the world's Muslim population, Musta'li Ismaili (with nearly 0.1% whose Taiyabi adherents reside in Sindh and Gujarat in South Asia. There are also significant diaspora populations in Europe, North America, the Far East and East Africa), and Ibadis from the Kharijites whose population has diminished to a level below 0.15%. On the other hand, new Muslim sects like the Nation of Islam, Ahmadi Muslims (with nearly around 1%), non-denominational Muslims, Quranist Muslims and Wahhabis (with nearly around 1-2% of the world's total Muslim population) were later independently developed.
According to the Pew Research Center in 2010, there were 50 Muslim-majority countries. Around 62% of the world's Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region (from Turkey to Indonesia), with over 1 billion adherents. The largest Muslim population in a country is in Indonesia, a nation home to 12.7% of the world's Muslims, followed by Pakistan (11.0%), and India (10.9%). About 20% of Muslims live in Arab countries. In the Middle East, the non-Arab countries of Iran and Turkey are the largest Muslim-majority countries; in Africa, Egypt and Nigeria have the most populous Muslim communities. The study found more Muslims in the United Kingdom than in Lebanon and more in China than in Syria.
Maps Islam by country
Countries
Most of the percentages of Muslim populations of each country, if not stated otherwise, were taken from the study by the Pew Research Center report of The Future of the Global Muslim Population, as of 27 January 2011.
Many of the near-100% figures are likely overestimates as many of those same countries have laws against blasphemy and/or apostasy, punishable by prison or even death. As such, there is a strong incentive for irreligious poll respondents to lie.
Table
By continent
See also
Islam:
- Muslim world
- Muslim population growth
- Shia Muslims in the Arab world
- Ahmadiyya by country
Other religions by country:
- Ahmadiyya
- Buddhism
- Christianity
- Hinduism
- Judaism
- No Faith
- Sikhism
General
- List of religious populations
References
Further reading
- United States Department of State International Religious Freedom Report
- CIA World Factbook The World Factbook
- Adherents.com 43,941 adherent statistic citations
- Religious Freedom page
- Religious Intelligence
- Muslim Population Percentage from U.S Dept. of State
- CIA World Factbook Religions
- BBC News Muslims in Europe: Country guide
External links
- Official website of the Pew Forum study on Global Muslim Population
- Muslim Population-A Site with Extensive information regarding worldwide Muslim population
Source of article : Wikipedia
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