Global Muslim population growing

A new study has predicted that the world’s Muslim population will grow at double the rate of non-Muslims over the next twenty years with Muslims representing more than one quarter of the global population.

The study, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, predicts a 1.5-percent annual population growth rate for the world’s Muslims over the next two decades and 0.7 per cent growth each year for non-Muslims.

The Pew report, called ‘The Future of the Global Muslim Population,’ forecasts that in 2030 Muslims will make up 26.4 per cent of the world’s population, which would be around 8.3 billion by then.

The study projects that more than six in 10 followers of Islam will live in the Asia-Pacific region in 2030, and Pakistan will overtake Indonesia as the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

The study also anticipates that the number of Muslims in the United States will more than double, to 6.2 million.

Pew says, however, that while the Muslim population is set to grow at a faster rate than that of the whole world, the rate of Muslim growth is slowing.

“The Muslim population is growing and slowing. Instead of a runaway train, it’s trending with the general global population,” says Alan Cooperman, associate director of the think tank.

Muslims now make 23.4 percent of the world’s 6.9-billion population.