{"id":260385,"date":"2025-06-09T13:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=260385"},"modified":"2025-08-14T10:29:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:29:36","slug":"muslim-population-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2025\/06\/09\/muslim-population-change\/","title":{"rendered":"3. Muslim population change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Muslims are the world\u2019s second-largest religious group and the fastest-growing major religion. They make up the vast majority of the population in the Middle East-North Africa region. In all other regions, Muslims are a religious minority, including in the Asia-Pacific region, which is home to the greatest number<\/em> of Muslims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global change<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The number<\/em> of Muslims around the world grew 21% between 2010 and 2020, from 1.7 billion to 2.0 billion. Muslims grew twice as fast as the rest of the world\u2019s population, which expanded by 10% during the same decade. As a result, Muslims grew as a share<\/em> of the global population, from 24% to 26%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Table<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Regional change<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The number (or count<\/em>) of Muslims grew in all geographic regions between 2010 and 2020, but the extent of the increase varied widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rate of Muslim growth was the highest in North America, where Muslims numbered 5.9 million in 2020 (up 52%), followed by sub-Saharan Africa, where Muslims grew to 369 million (up 34%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every region, Muslims grew at a faster rate than the non-Muslim population, with one exception. In the Latin America-Caribbean region, which has the smallest Muslim population, the number of Muslims increased by 6%, while the region\u2019s non-Muslim population grew by 10%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the percentage<\/em> of Muslims rose in all regions outside of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Muslim share of the population increased the most in the Asia-Pacific region, where Muslims rose to 26% of the population in 2020 (up 1.4 percentage points). Meanwhile, Muslims grew to make up 33% of all residents in sub-Saharan Africa (up 0.8 points) and 6% of Europe\u2019s population (up 0.7 points).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Table<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Regional distribution of Muslims<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since 2010, the world\u2019s Muslim population has become slightly more concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, which is now home to 18% of the world\u2019s Muslims (up 2 points). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslims have become slightly less <\/em>concentrated in the Asia- Pacific region, which is home to 59% of all Muslims as of 2020 (down 2 points).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Table<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Countries with the highest Muslim counts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A third of Muslims live in Indonesia, Pakistan or India. Indonesia\u2019s count is slightly ahead of the others: Roughly 240 million Muslims \u2013 around 12% of the world\u2019s Muslims \u2013 are in Indonesia, as of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Table<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 10 countries with the largest number of Muslims are home to a combined 1.3 billion Muslims, or 65% of the world\u2019s total Muslim population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In nine of these countries, Islam is the majority religion. India is an exception. The 213 million Muslims living in India as of 2020 make up only 15% of the country\u2019s overall population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did the Muslim share of the population change the most?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In five countries, the estimated share of the population identifying as Muslim changed substantially (by at least 5 percentage points). In Kazakhstan, Benin and Lebanon, the Muslim share of the population increased<\/em>, while in Tanzania and Oman, the share of Muslims decreased<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is \u2018substantial change\u2019 defined?<\/summary>\n

This section highlights countries that experienced substantial change in the size of their religious populations between 2010 and 2020. We focus on cases where a religious group\u2019s share of a country\u2019s population grew or shrank by at least 5 percentage points. We set that threshold because wide variations in data sources make it difficult to test the statistical significance of differences in population estimates in 2010 and 2020. Refer to the Methodology<\/a> for details.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

In these countries, changes in the Muslim share of the population were often related to migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n