Islam is the second largest religion in the world. According to a study conducted in 2023, Muslims number 2 billion people and constitute about 25% of the world’s population. Most Muslims are either from two sects : Sunni (80-90%, approximately 1.5 billion people) or Shiite (10-20%, approximately 170-340 million people). Islam is the dominant religion in Central Asia , Indonesia , the Middle East , South Asia , North Africa , the Sahel and some other parts of Asia . The diverse Asia-Pacific region contains the largest Muslim population in the world, surpassing the Middle East and North Africa .
About 31% of Muslims are of South Asian origin , so South Asia contains the largest Muslim population in the world. In this region, Muslims are second in number after Hindus , with Muslims being the majority in Pakistan and Bangladesh , but not India .
The various countries with Afro-Asian languages (including Arabic , Berber ), Turkish , and Persian in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where Islam is the dominant religion in all countries except Israel , have about 23% of the total Muslims.
The country with the largest Muslim population is Indonesia in Southeast Asia , which alone contains 13% of the world’s Muslims. Muslims in Southeast Asian countries constitute the world’s third largest Muslim population. In the countries of the Malay Archipelago, Muslims are the majority in every country except Singapore , the Philippines and East Timor .
About 15% of Muslims reside in sub-Saharan Africa , and there are large Muslim communities in the Americas , the Caucasus , China , Europe , the Philippines and Russia .
Western Europe hosts many Muslim immigrants in societies where Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity , representing 6% of the total population or about 24 million people. Conversion to Islam and Muslim immigrant communities exist in almost every part of the world .
