Rabat – The world’s Muslim community is estimated to have reached a total of 2,006,931,770 this week, the Global Muslim Population website reported earlier this week.
Muslims thus represent more than 25% of the global population of over 8 billion people, added the report, noting that Islam is the second largest religion in the world after Christianity.
Islam is the official religion in 26 countries across Asia and Africa, said the report, adding that it is also the fastest-growing religion in the world.
A 2017 report by the Pew Research Center indicated that Muslims are “the world’s fastest-growing religious group,” projecting Islam to overtake Christianity as the world’s largest religion.
“Muslims will grow more than twice as fast as the overall world population between 2015 and 2060 and, in the second half of this century, will likely surpass Christians as the world’s largest religious group,” indicated the report.
It added that babies born to Muslim parents will start to outnumber those born to Christians by the year 2035.
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The world’s population is expected to grow by 32% in the next decades. However, the Muslim population is projected to increase by 70%, from 1.8 billion in 2015 to nearly 3 billion in 2060.
In addition, the report expects religious switching to “hinder” the growth of Christianity by an estimated 72 million people between 2015 and 2060. However, it suggested that religious switching will not have a “negative net impact” on Muslim population growth.
“Muslims are found in every region of the world,” said the Global Muslim Population, noting that the highest concentration of the Muslim community is found in the Asia-Pacific region.
Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim community in the world, with more than 240,977,000 Muslims. The Asian country is followed by Pakistan (+230 million), India (+219 million), Bangladesh (+156 million), and Nigeria (+113 million), according to the report.
