How Many Muslims in the World? 2025 Stats & Projections

Christianity remains the world’s largest religion, but Islam is closing the gap faster than many expect — and that story plays out across regions, from sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia. A major new study from Pew Research Center, released June 9, 2025, puts hard numbers on what’s happening: Muslims grew by 347 million in a single decade while Christian growth slowed dramatically.

Global Muslim Population (2020): 2.0 billion · World Share: 25.6% · Growth 2010–2020: +347 million · Status: Second-largest religion

The following data table summarizes key figures from Pew Research Center’s 2025 Global Religious Landscape report, covering both historical measurements and projected trends through 2050.

How Many Muslims Are There in the World?

As of the end of 2020, approximately 2.0 billion people identified as Muslims, representing about 25.6% of the global population, according to Pew Research Center’s comprehensive analysis of over 2,700 censuses and surveys covering 99.98% of the world’s people. That figure marks a substantial rise from 23.9% in 2010, with the Muslim population gaining 1.8 percentage points of global share in just one decade.

Current estimates from Pew and Wikipedia

The numbers come from Pew Research Center’s June 2025 report on global religious landscape changes, which analyzed data from 2010 to 2020. Muslims grew faster than any other major religious group during that period, adding 347 million adherents. The data shows Islam was “the world’s fastest-growing religion from 2010 to 2020,” according to the research organization’s own framing.

The growth pattern reflects higher fertility rates in countries with large Muslim majorities, combined with younger median ages in Muslim-majority regions. Christianity, by contrast, grew by only 122 million people over the same period despite starting from a larger base.

Share of global population

The shift in global share is remarkable when viewed across the decade. In 2010, Muslims comprised 23.9% of the world population. By 2020, that share had risen to 25.6% — a net gain of 1.8 points. Meanwhile, Christianity’s share fell from 30.6% to 28.8%, a decline of 1.8 percentage points. The gap between the two religions narrowed significantly.

“As a result of the rapid growth of the Muslim population, the gap between the global number of Muslims and Christians is shrinking.”

— Pew Research Center short-read analysis

How Many Muslims in the World vs Christians?

Christianity remains the world’s largest religion, but the margin is tightening. With 2.3 billion adherents in 2020 (28.8% of the global population), Christians outnumber Muslims by roughly 300 million people — a gap that was significantly wider a decade earlier. The two groups together account for over 54% of the world’s nearly 7 billion people.

Christianity as world no. 1 religion

Christians maintained their position as the largest religious group globally in 2020, but the ground beneath them shifted. Their share of the world population fell 1.8 percentage points from 2010, when they held 30.6%. The decline tracks with high rates of disaffiliation — people leaving Christianity — particularly in Europe and North America.

The implication: even regions that once anchored Christian growth are now contributing to its contraction.

Muslims more numerous than Catholics

While Christians overall outnumber Muslims globally, Muslims already exceed the Catholic population specifically. Vatican records confirm that Muslims now outnumber Catholics worldwide — a milestone that reflects Islam’s faster growth trajectory and younger demographic profile. Islam has been the second-largest religious group for some time, but its numerical edge over Catholic Christianity specifically is relatively recent and notable.

“Growth in the number of Christians was slowed by high rates of disaffiliation.”

— Pew Research Center short-read analysis

Will Islam Surpass Christianity?

The short answer is: not soon, but the gap is narrowing faster than many expect. Pew Research Center’s 2015 projections, the most recent long-range forecasts available, suggest that Muslims and Christians will reach near-parity by 2050, with Muslims projected to number 2.8 billion (30% of the world) and Christians 2.9 billion (31%). The difference of roughly 100 million would be the smallest gap in modern history.

Muslim population growth rates

The growth dynamics that drove Islam’s expansion from 2010 to 2020 are expected to continue, though Pew has not released updated projections beyond 2020. The key drivers remain higher fertility rates in Muslim-majority countries, younger populations, and lower rates of religious switching out of Islam compared to the disaffiliation rates seen in Christian-majority countries.

Projections for 2050 and 2026

The 2015 Pew projections — which used 2010 as a baseline and were later updated with 2020 data — forecast 2.8 billion Muslims and 2.9 billion Christians by 2050. No specific 2026 figures have been released by Pew, and researchers have not published updated forecasts beyond 2020 as of early 2026. The most responsible estimate is that 2026 Muslim numbers likely fall somewhere between the 2020 baseline of 2.0 billion and the trajectory toward 2.8 billion by 2050, probably approaching 2.1 to 2.2 billion.

The largest wildcard in future projections is India. Pew’s 2015 forecast predicted that India will surpass Indonesia as the country with the world’s largest Muslim population by 2050, driven by India’s overall population size and a growing Muslim minority within it. If correct, this would represent a profound demographic shift.

“Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion.”

— Pew Research Center 2015 projections report

Which Countries Have the Largest Muslim Populations?

The distribution of the world’s Muslim population is heavily concentrated in Asia, with the top five countries accounting for a large share of global Muslims. Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Nigeria, and Bangladesh collectively host well over a billion Muslims, representing the majority of the world’s 2.0 billion adherents.

Top 10 Muslim countries

Indonesia consistently ranks first, with a Muslim population that has made it the largest Muslim-majority country in the world for decades. Pakistan follows as the second-largest, with over 200 million people, the vast majority Muslim. India — despite being majority Hindu — now has the third-largest Muslim population in absolute terms, numbering over 200 million, thanks to its massive total population.

The Middle East and North Africa also contribute significantly, with Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia among the larger Muslim populations. Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria, has one of the fastest-growing Muslim populations in the world, driven by high fertility rates and a young population structure.

The geographic spread matters: Muslims are present in significant numbers across more than 200 countries and territories, making Islam one of the most geographically widespread religions globally.

Islam by country data

Pew Research Center maintains an interactive religious composition table covering every country, last updated in February 2026 with diversity rankings. That dataset — drawing on over 2,700 censuses and surveys — remains the most comprehensive source for cross-country comparisons of religious affiliation.

The pattern: when the world’s largest population (India) has a large enough Muslim minority to surpass officially Muslim-majority nations, the implications for global religious balance become stark.

How Many Muslim-Majority Countries?

According to Pew Research Center’s 2025 report, the number of countries where Muslims represent a majority of the population remained at 53 from 2010 to 2020 — no new Muslim-majority countries emerged during that period. This figure covers sovereign states but not territories or subnational regions.

List of 57 Muslim countries

Some sources cite 57 or 49 Muslim-majority countries, depending on the definition used — whether counting OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) member states, using a strict 50%+ threshold, or including territories. The Pew figure of 53 reflects verified census and survey data through 2020 and remains the most precise count from a single authoritative source.

These countries span from the Middle East and North Africa to South Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Together, they represent a significant bloc of the world’s population, political systems, and cultural influence.

Countries with 100% Muslims

Strictly speaking, no country is 100% Muslim in terms of religious affiliation, even in the most conservative theocratic states. Every country with a Muslim majority still contains religious minorities — Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, atheists, and others. The closest cases are Saudi Arabia (where non-Muslim worship is officially restricted but small expatriate communities exist), Mauritania, and Western Sahara, but even these have small non-Muslim populations in practice.

Related reading: What Is Gen Z? Age Range, Characteristics & Comparisons · Northern Ireland Football Team: Catholics, O’Neill, Qualifiers

Frequently asked questions

For demographers and policy analysts tracking global religious trends, the direction is clear: Islam is growing faster than any other major religion, and the demographic foundation of the world’s religious landscape is shifting. The implications — for markets, migration, politics, and culture — will unfold over the coming decades, not in some distant future.