Spain’s Muslim population to jump

The Muslim population in Spain will grow by 82 percent by 2030 as the number of people converting to Islam has shown an increase over the past seven years, a new survey shows.

According to the survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Muslims currently account for just over 1 million of Spain’s overall population, which is expected to increase to about 1.9 million in the next two decades, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday.

Researchers at the forum have cited immigration as the primary cause of the upward trend, but high rate of conversion to Islam among Spanish citizens and migrants have also contributed to the spike in the number of Muslim population in the European country.

“This is good news, maybe from now on our voices will be heard and our opinion will weight in the political and social arena. More Muslims are becoming politicians and creating networks to help each other participate in the Spanish society,” Abdelaziz Ayadi, an Islamic studies expert, told Press TV.

The study titled “The Future of the Global Muslim Population” indicates that a considerable percentage of people in Spain have converted to Islam over the past seven years and they account for around 20,000 of the country’s population.

According to new population projections by the forum, the world’s Muslim population is also expected to increase at twice the rate of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades.

The report predicts an annual growth rate of 1.5 percent for Muslims, compared with 0.7 percent for non-Muslims over the next 20 years.

The number of Muslims will increase from 1.6 billion, or 23.4 percent, of the world population at the moment to 2.2 billion, or 26.4 percent, by 2030, according to the study.