Basics of Islam
Who follows it?
Spread of Islam
- Fastest growing religion in the world 1.6 billion worldwide (23% of the global population of 5.3 billion)
1 out of every 4 people on Earth is a Muslim - Mainly Asia & Africa centric 95% of all Muslims live in Asian or African countries - over 60% live in Asia.
- Global religion Europe has approx. 38 million Muslims - 3% of its population.
Germany has more than 4 million Muslims — almost as many as North and South America combined.
Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon (2.5m)
China (23m) has more Muslims than Syria (21m)
Russia (16m) has more Muslims than Jordan (6.5m) and Libya (6.5m)combined
Ethiopia (28.7m) has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan (29m) - Social mixing 317 million Muslims — or 20% of the world's Muslim population — living in countries where Islam is not the majority religion.
Multicultural
Muslims are a racially diverse community, the majority of which are non-Arab. Although the formal teaching of Islam began in Arabia, Arabs comprise less than 15 percent of Muslims. The largest Muslim population is in Indonesia, and the second largest is in Pakistan. Bangladesh is fourth, behind India.
There are estimated to be over 23 million Muslims in modern China - making up 2% of the population. Largely due to high birthrates in the traditional Islamic world, Islam is considered to be the fastest growing religion in the twenty-first century. In 2000 it was the third largest religion in the United States and is expected to be the second after Christianity.
Top 10 largest Muslim countries (2010)
Population in millions (% of that country's population)
- Indonesia - 205m (88%)
- Pakistan - 178m (96%)
- India - 177m (15%)
- Bangladesh - 149m (90%)
- Egypt - 80m (95%)
- Nigeria - 76m (48%)
- Iran - 75m (99%)
- Turkey - 75m (98%)
- Algeria - 35m (98%)
- Morocco - 32m (99%)
Other countries of interest:
Afghanistan - 29m (99%)
Australia - 399k (2%)
China - 23m (2%)
Palestine - 4m (98%)
Saudi Arabia - 25m (97%)
Somalia - 9m (99%)
United Kingdom - 3m (4.5%)
United States of America - 2.5m (1%)
Yemen - 24m (99%)