The Future of the Global Muslim Population

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The world’s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35% in the  next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030, according  to new population projections by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Globally, the Muslim population is forecast to grow at about twice the rate  of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades – an average annual  growth rate of 1.5% for Muslims, compared with 0.7% for non-Muslims. If current  trends continue, Muslims will make up 26.4% of the world’s total projected  population of 8.3 billion in 2030, up from 23.4% of the estimated 2010 world  population of 6.9 billion.

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. From 1990 to 2010, the global Muslim population increased at an average  annual rate of 2.2%, compared with the projected rate of 1.5% for the period  from 2010 to 2030.

These are among the key findings of a comprehensive report on the size,  distribution and growth of the global Muslim population. The report by the Pew  Forum on Religion & Public Life seeks to provide up-to-date estimates of the  number of Muslims around the world in 2010 and to project the growth of the  Muslim population from 2010 to 2030. The projections are based both on past  demographic trends and on assumptions about how these trends will play out in  future years. Making these projections inevitably entails a host of  uncertainties, including political ones. Changes in the political climate in the  United States or European nations, for example, could dramatically affect the  patterns of Muslim migration.

If current trends continue, however, 79 countries will  have a million or more Muslim inhabitants in 2030, up from 72 countries today.1 A  majority of the world’s Muslims (about 60%) 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 today. But Pakistan is expected to surpass Indonesia as  the country with the single largest Muslim population. The portion of the  world’s Muslims living in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to rise; in 20 years,  for example, more Muslims are likely to live in Nigeria than in Egypt. Muslims  will remain relatively small minorities in Europe and the Americas, but they are  expected to constitute a growing share of the total population in these  regions.

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Categories: Demographics

3 replies

  1. Demographics is the only strength the Muslims have in our times.

    They are not leaders in science, technology, military power, media or any thing else for that matter.

    So, those leaders, who stress education, jobs and basic human rights, of the Muslims and their integration in the Western societies are on the right track and those who go on any other tangent, apparently are working for Satan.

    This is especially true for those who are obsessed with enforcement of Shariah Law, which they cannot even present in a book form, by hook or crook.

  2. does success depend on military strength? if so, then the most successful people are the athiests and thus they are the rightly guided!

  3. See, the point is that it takes a certain degree of lack of intelligence, for a clearly weak person, to get constantly beaten up by a much stronger man and still keep on fighting physically and keep getting beat up, with no end in sight.

    A wise man will reassess options and change strategy and give up failing strategy of military or armed struggle.

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