Demographics of Islam

The following table analyzes the Demographics of Islam as of mid-year 2005.

Discrepancy

The exact percentage of the world's Muslim population that adheres to the various Shi'a sects, as opposed to the majority Sunni group, is indeterminate. No Sunni-Shi'a breakdown is available for many countries. The CIA World Factbook gives a Sunni-Shi'a breakdown only for countries where Shi'a are a "significant" minority. When no breakdown is given, all the country's Muslims have been enrolled, provisionally, in the Sunni column. This is certain to have exaggerated the proportion of Sunni Muslims. Much further work will be required before the Sunni-Shi'a statistics given here can be considered reliable. At present, the figures indicate 85% Sunni and 15% Shi'a.

[http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/MidEastReligionCore_lg.jpgThe Muslim Population of the Middle East] [ [http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/maps.shtml The Gulf 2000 Project SIPA Columbia University] ]

No columns have been provided for other sects, such as the Ibadi branch of Islam. Ibadis are found primarily in Oman.

There is also discrepancy between the Muslim total derived from adding up the figures for the various countries (1,363,000,000) and the Muslim total given by the CIA World Factbook (1,283,000,000). The CIA estimates that Muslims constitute some 20.12% of the world population. If the larger figure is used, the percentage would be 23.1%. The discrepancy may be due to rounding errors, since in many cases the Muslim population was calculated from the general population multiplied by the Muslim percentage. Replacing the CIA figures with figures from national censuses, if available, could reduce this discrepancy.

Data

Data is estimated as of mid-2005 for countries with the largest Muslim population, representing about 92% of the total world Muslim population.

Table sorted by country names: Demographics of Islam - Data by Country Name

References

The majority of the figures have been taken from, or calculated from, the CIA World Factbook [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/] and the website Adherents.com [http://www.adherents.com/] . When these sources fail to provide any numerical information, other sources have been used as specified below:

*"Encyclopedia Britannica" 1997 edition
*Registered religious communities in Finland (2003)
*The World Almanac & Book of Facts 1998 (K-111 Reference Corp.: Mahwah, NJ), [Source: 1997 Encyc. Britannica Book of the Year] ; pg. 654.

ee also

* Islam by country
* Shia Halfmoon

External links

* [http://islamicweb.com/?folder=beliefs/cults&file=shia_population Statistics from IslamicWeb]
* [http://www.imamreza.net/eng/imamreza.php?id=3591 Imam Reza Network estimates]