×
GreekEnglish

×
  • Politics
  • Diaspora
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Cooking
Wednesday
07
Jan 2026
weather symbol
Athens 20°C
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • World
  • Diaspora
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Mediterranean Cooking
  • Weather
Contact follow Protothema:
Powered by Cloudevo
> World

World’s Muslim population more widespread than you might think

As of 2010 there were an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims around the world

Newsroom March 13 01:32

President Donald Trump’s recent executive order temporarily freezing immigration from seven predominantly Islamic countries would affect only about 12% of the world’s Muslims, according to estimates from a 2015 Pew Research Center report on the current and projected size of religious groups. In fact, of the seven countries named in the new immigration ban – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – only one, Iran, is among the 10 countries with the largest Muslim populations.

As of 2010, there were an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, making Islam the world’s second-largest religious tradition after Christianity. And although many people, especially in the United States, may associate Islam with countries in the Middle East or North Africa, nearly two-thirds (62%) of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the Pew Research Center analysis. In fact, more Muslims live in India and Pakistan (344 million combined) than in the entire Middle East-North Africa region (317 million).

However, the Middle East-North Africa region has the highest concentration of Muslims of any region of the world: 93% of its approximately 341 million inhabitants are Muslim, compared with 30% in sub-Saharan Africa and 24% in the Asia-Pacific region.

wml

Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries around the world. The country with the largest number (about 209 million) is Indonesia, where 87.2% of the population identifies as Muslim. India has the world’s second-largest Muslim population in raw numbers (roughly 176 million), though Muslims make up just 14.4% of India’s total population.

Pew Research Center uses an array of surveys, census reports, population registers and other data sources to estimate numbers of Muslims and other religious groups around the world, the goal being to count all groups and people who self-identify with a particular religion. The figures presented here are as of 2010.

>Related articles

Maduro in custody in New York: Photographed in handcuffs at DEA headquarters – Live updates on developments in Venezuela

Trump says US has ‘captured’ President Maduro following Caracas strikes

EU calls on Iran to release Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammadi

Looking ahead, the Center estimates that by 2050 the number of Muslims worldwide will grow to 2.76 billion, or 29.7% of world’s population. The share of the world’s Muslims who live in sub-Saharan Africa will increase from 15.5% in 2010 to 24.3%. Asia, which is currently home to more of the world’s Muslims (61.7%) than all the other regions combined, will continue to host a majority of the world’s Muslims, albeit with a smaller share (52.8%). As for the Middle East and North Africa, the region will roughly maintain its share of the world’s Muslims, rising only slightly from 19.8% to 20.0% in 2050.

Just 0.2% of the world’s Muslims live in North America. In the U.S., Muslims are projected to double from 0.9% of the population in 2010 to 2.1% by 2050 based on recent demographic and migration patterns.

Source

Ask me anything

Explore related questions

#muslims#population#religion#Trump
> More World

Follow en.protothema.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news

See all the latest News from Greece and the World, the moment they happen, at en.protothema.gr

> Latest Stories

Nikolas Farantouris expelled from SYRIZA’s EP group after statements about Karystianou’s party – They are asking him to hand over his seat

January 7, 2026

Supreme court orders Prosecutors to act on farmers’ road blockades, investigating offenses like traffic obstruction

January 7, 2026

Hundreds of flights canceled in France and the Netherlands as snow and ice hits Western Europe

January 7, 2026

Protothema on the abandoned children at Agia Sofia Children’s Hospital: The story of the boy who was removed from his home after a brutal beating

January 7, 2026

The report and the foreign experts on airports, Maria… reads her party (and her enemies), Attica talks to Grimaldi, the control of Proodeftiki

January 7, 2026

Announcements on support measures for farmers – 7 of the 27 demands are outside the EU’s fiscal limits and framework, says Chatzidakis

January 7, 2026

Details of the new prices in all the country’s tolls: the increases in Attiki Odos, the “golden” crossing of Rio and the Ionian Road

January 7, 2026

Georgiadis on Varoufakis: Sorry for calling him Karagiozis, Karagiozis is a respected figure in folk tradition

January 7, 2026
All News

> Greece

Supreme court orders Prosecutors to act on farmers’ road blockades, investigating offenses like traffic obstruction

The Supreme Court asks the Prosecutors of Appeals to intervene directly to investigate offences such as obstruction of public transport and to verify the evidence

January 7, 2026

Protothema on the abandoned children at Agia Sofia Children’s Hospital: The story of the boy who was removed from his home after a brutal beating

January 7, 2026

Announcements on support measures for farmers – 7 of the 27 demands are outside the EU’s fiscal limits and framework, says Chatzidakis

January 7, 2026

Details of the new prices in all the country’s tolls: the increases in Attiki Odos, the “golden” crossing of Rio and the Ionian Road

January 7, 2026

Second chance to reclaim their home for those who lost it to banks and servicers

January 7, 2026
Homepage
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY COOKIES POLICY TERM OF USE
Powered by Cloudevo
Copyright © 2026 Πρώτο Θέμα