From: bv8bv8bv8@gmail.com   
      
   THE POPULATION OF MUSLIMS   
      
       
      
   Islam today is a global religion.  It is no longer confined to Muslim majority   
   countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Indonesia.  Small but significant   
   communities exist across Europe, the Americas and Australasia.  For some time   
   Muslims have been an    
   invisible presence in the western world but one decade into the 21st century   
   Muslims are no longer curiosities.  They are as much at home in London Paris   
   or Chicago as they are in Istanbul, Damascus and Jakarta.    
      
   In 2011 Muslims in the West also no longer exist in immigrant communities but   
   are second, third and fourth generation citizens participating in professional   
   and civic life.  Islam is said to be the fastest growing religion in the   
   United States.  It is    
   estimated that more than 1 million Americans have converted to Islam.  In   
   recent years due to an Islamic revival, believing and practicing Muslims have   
   established a visible presence not only in Islamic societies but also in the   
   West.    
      
   What do the latest data and statistics tell us about the number of Muslims in   
   the world.  Where do they live? How many are born into the Muslim faith and   
   how many choose to convert to Islam? The majority of the following statistics   
   and data come from the    
   Pew Research Centre.   
      
   According to the Pew[1]  Islam is growing about 2.9% per year.  This is faster   
   than the total world population which increases about 2.3% annually.  The   
   world’s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35% in the next 20   
   years.  In mid 2010 the    
   Pew forum estimated that there were 1.57 billion Muslims in the world.  This   
   represents 22% of the world’s population.  Islam is the second largest   
   religion in the world, beaten only by Christianity which represents 33% of the   
   world’s population with a    
   little over 2 billion adherents.    
      
   The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life stated that Islam is the   
   fastest-growing religion in Europe.  Driven by immigration and high birth   
   rates, the number of Muslims on the continent has tripled in the last 30   
   years.  Most demographers forecast a    
   similar or even higher rate of growth in the coming decades.    
      
   If current trends continue 79 countries will have a million or more Muslim   
   inhabitants in 2030, up from 72 countries in 2011.  The seven new countries   
   are expected to be Belgium, Canada, Congo, Djibouti, Guinea Bissau,   
   Netherlands and Togo.  About 60% of    
   the world’s Muslims will continue to live in the Asia-Pacific region, while   
   about 20% will live in the Middle East and North Africa, as is the case in   
   2010.  One of the biggest changes expected is that Pakistan will almost   
   certainly surpass Indonesia as    
   the country with the single largest Muslim population. [2]   
      
   In 2011 statistics tell us that 74.1% of the world’s Muslims live in the 49   
   countries in which Muslims make up a majority of the population.  More than a   
   fifth of all Muslims (23.3%) live in non-Muslim-majority countries in the   
   developing world.  These    
   minority Muslim populations are often quite large.  India, for example, has   
   the third-largest population of Muslims worldwide.  China has more Muslims   
   than Syria, while Russia is home to more Muslims than Jordan and Libya   
   combined. [3]  About 3% of the    
   world’s Muslims live in more-developed regions, such as Europe, North America,   
   Australia, New Zealand and Japan. [4]   
      
   In the United States, the population projections show the number of Muslims   
   more than doubling over the next two decades, rising from 2.6 million in 2010   
   to 6.2 million in 2030.  The number of Muslims in Canada is expected to nearly   
   triple in the next 20    
   years, from about 940,000 in 2010 to nearly 2.7 million in 2030.  Muslims are   
   expected to make up 6.6% of Canada’s total population in 2030, up from 2.8%   
   today.  Argentina is expected to have the third-largest Muslim population in   
   the Americas, after the    
   U.S.  and Canada.  Argentina, with about 1 million Muslims in 2010, is now in   
   second place, behind the U.S.   
      
    In Europe as a whole, the Muslim share of the population is expected to grow   
   by nearly one-third over the next 20 years, rising from 6% of the region’s   
   inhabitants in 2010 to 8% in 2030.  In absolute numbers, Europe’s Muslim   
   population is projected to    
   grow from 44.1 million in 2010 to 58.2 million in 2030.  Nearly three-in-ten   
   people living in the Asia-Pacific region in 2030 (27.3%) will be Muslim, up   
   from about a quarter in 2010 (24.8%) and roughly a fifth in 1990 (21.6%).    
   Muslims make up only about    
   2% of the population in China, but because the country is so populous, its   
   Muslim population is expected to be the 19th largest in the world in 2030.   
      
   The growth rates of religions are usually due to conversions, higher birth and   
   fertility rates and in many countries religions grow because of immigration.    
   While the global Muslim population is expected to grow at a faster rate than   
   the non-Muslim    
   population, the Muslim population nevertheless is expected to grow at a slower   
   pace in the next two decades than it did in the previous two decades.    
      
   Finding statistics and data about the number of people converting to Islam   
   from other religions or atheism can be difficult.  This is usually not a   
   question asked by government authorities or research centers.  In the next   
   article we will discuss Muslim    
   growth rates across the globe due to conversion and immigration.   
      
       
      
   Islam is a global religion, and as we learned in the previous article it is no   
   longer confined to those countries we think of as Arabic or Asian.  Close to   
   1.6 billion people across the globe identify as Muslim.  Growth projections   
   paint a picture of    
   unprecedented growth, faster than the world population growth.  2011   
   statistics tell us that 74.1% of the world’s Muslims live in the 49 countries   
   in which Muslims make up a majority of the population.  More than a fifth of   
   all Muslims (23.3%) live in    
   non-Muslim-majority countries in the developing world, and about 3% of the   
   world's Muslims live in more-developed regions, such as Europe, North America,   
   and Australia.  Where in fact do these 3% of Muslims come from?   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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