Number of Muslims and their percentage in the world
Fatwa No: 88177

Question

Can you tell us how many Muslims there are in the world and how many are joining us every day?

Answer

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

The Muslim population in the world increased by 6% in comparison to the last century. On the contrary, the Christian population decreased according to statistics published by the newest issue of 'The World Christian Encyclopedia'. According to these statistics, the world population which is estimated at 6 billion people, including 1.2 billion Muslims whereas there are 2 billion Christians, rating 2 Muslims for every 3 Christians, although in 1900 there was only 1 Muslim for every 3 Christians.

According to the same source, the Muslim population in comparison to the world population increased to 19.6% whereas in 1900 it was only 12.3%. However the Christian population decreased from 32.2% in 1900 to 31.2% at present.

As regards the other groups, their numbers changed  slightly in comparison to the world population.

In relation to the number of people who embraced Islam in the world, we did not find any statistics in this regard. However, the number of people who embrace Islam yearly in the United States is estimated at 25,000 and in Britain between 10,000 to 50,000 yearly.

Allah knows best.

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