Last year June, the United Nations published a report stating that the current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050. And according to a report by Washington-based Pew Research Center (PRC), a significant percentage of this almost 10 billion population will be Muslim.
PRC estimates that Muslims will reach 2.76 billion (currently 1.161 billion) or 29.7 percent of the world's population by 2050. In addition, studies conducted by the think tank in 2015 and 2017 identify Sub-Saharan Africa as home to over 24 percent of Muslims worldwide by 2050, while Asia will host around 52.8 percent. Meanwhile, numbers in the Middle East and North Africa are expected to remain steady at 20 percent, a 0.2 percent growth.
Nearly two-thirds (62%) of Muslims currently “live in the Asia-Pacific region [...] In fact, more Muslims live in India and Pakistan (344 million combined) than in the entire Middle East-North Africa region (317 million).”
The piece also highlights the fact that Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries across the globe, with Indonesia hosting the largest number, about 209 million. India has the world’s second-largest Muslim population in raw numbers (roughly 176 million), though Muslims make up just 14.4% of India’s total population.
Presently, China and India are the two most populous countries in the world. According to the PRC report, though, the population of India, which is currently at 1.3 billion, is expected to surpass that of China (today 1.4 billion) in about seven years.
With regards to the United States, where there has been increased incidents and discriminatory policies targeting Muslims, the PRC report estimates the country’s Muslim population at around about 3.3 million. This means that Muslims make up around 1 percent of the total U.S. population, which the study estimates will double by 2050.
