WASHINGTON (RNS) A new study released late Wednesday (Oct. 7) by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life counted 1.57 billion Muslims worldwide, making Muslims about 1 out of every 4 people in the world’s estimated population of 6.8 billion.
Almost 2.5 million Muslims live in the United States, comprising 0.2 percent of the world’s Muslim population, according to Pew researchers.
“Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population” is based on 1,500 sources — census reports, demographic studies and population surveys — from 232 countries and territories.
More than half of the Muslims in the Americas live in the United States, but the comparatively small country of Suriname has the largest percentage of Muslims in the region, with 16 percent of its population identifying as Muslims. Two percent of Canadians are Muslim, more than double the United States’ 0.8 percent.
A 2007 Pew study reported that two-thirds percent of U.S. Muslims are first-generation immigrants coming from at least 68 different countries. The same study stated that “Muslim Americans generally mirror the U.S. public in education and income.”
Minority Muslim groups claim a substantial portion of the global Muslim population, with more that 300 million Muslims living in countries where Islam is not the main religion, including large minority Muslim populations in India, China and Russia.
The 2009 report is the largest project of its kind. It will act as a starting point for a future study conducted by the Pew Forum, scheduled for release next year, looking at the future of Muslim populations.
