Associated with manuscript titled: Fifty Muslim-majority countries have fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths than the 50 richest non-Muslim countriesThe objective of this research was to determine the difference in the total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths between Muslim-majority and non-Muslim countries, and investigate reasons for the disparities. Methods: The 50 Muslim-majority countries had more than 50.0% Muslims with an average of 87.5%. The non-Muslim country sample consisted of 50 countries with the highest GDP while omitting any Muslim-majority countries listed. The non-Muslim countries’ average percentage of Muslims was 4.7%. Data pulled on September 18, 2020 included the percentage of Muslim population per country by World Population Review15 and GDP per country, population count, and total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths by Worldometers.16 The data set was transferred via an Excel spreadsheet on September 23, 2020 and analyzed. To measure COVID-19’s incidence in the countries, three different Average Treatment Methods (ATE) were used to validate the results. Results published as a preprint at https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/84zq5(15) Muslim Majority Countries 2020 [Internet]. Walnut (CA): World Population Review. 2020- [Cited 2020 Sept 28]. Available from: http://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/muslim-majority-countries (16) Worldometers.info. Worldometer. Dover (DE): Worldometer; 2020 [cited 2020 Sept 28]. Available from: http://worldometers.info

"Between October 2011 and November 2012, Pew Research Center, with generous funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation, conducted a public opinion survey involving more than 30,000 face-to-face interviews in 26 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The survey asked people to describe their religious beliefs and practices, and sought to gauge respondents; knowledge of and attitudes toward other faiths. It aimed to assess levels of political and economic satisfaction, concerns about crime, corruption and extremism, positions on issues such as abortion and polygamy, and views of democracy, religious law and the place of women in society.

"Although the surveys were nationally representative in most countries, the primary goal of the survey was to gauge and compare beliefs and attitudes of Muslims. The findings for Muslim respondents are summarized in the Religion & Public Life Project's reports The World's Muslims: Unity and Diversity and The World's Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society, which are available at www.pewresearch.org. [...] This dataset only contains data for Muslim respondents in the countries surveyed. Please note that this codebook is meant as a guide to the dataset, and is not the survey questionnaire." (2012 Pew Religion Worlds Muslims Codebook)

The average for 2013 based on 128 countries was 34.3 percent. The highest value was in Algeria: 100 percent and the lowest value was in Angola: 0 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2013. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2020, Indonesia recorded the largest population of Muslims worldwide, with around 239 million. This was followed with around 226.88 million Muslims in Pakistan and 213 million Muslims in India.

Islam is the major religion in many African countries, especially in the north of the continent. In Comoros, Libya, Western Sahara, at least 99 percent of the population was Muslim as of 202. These were the highest percentages on the continent. However, also in many other African nations, the majority of the population was Muslim. In Egypt, for instance, Islam was the religion of 79 percent of the people. Islam and other religions in Africa Africa accounts for an important share of the world’s Muslim population. As of 2019, 16 percent of the Muslims worldwide lived in Sub-Saharan Africa, while 20 percent of them lived in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Together with Christianity, Islam is the most common religious affiliation in Africa, followed by several traditional African religions. Although to a smaller extent, numerous other religions are practiced on the continent: these include Judaism, the Baha’i Faith, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Number of Muslims worldwide Islam is one of the most widespread religions in the world. There are approximately 1.9 billion Muslims globally, with the largest Muslim communities living in the Asia-Pacific region. Specifically, Indonesia hosts the highest number of Muslims worldwide, amounting to over 200 million, followed by India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Islam is also present in Europe and America. The largest Islamic communities in Europe are in France (5.72 million), Germany (4.95 million), and the United Kingdom (4.13 million). In the United States, there is an estimated number of around 3.45 million Muslims.

To deal with the threat posed by groups that use terrorist methods against Americans, in particular al Qaeda, the US is faced by more than the problem of the groups themselves. These groups operate in a larger society that provides them with some degree of support—enough to allow them to persist. The purpose of this study is to understand more deeply the nature and extent of this support, and also to determine how it is evolving. This points to a range of issues. To operate, groups that use terrorism must be viewed as legitimate by some sector of society. For decades the United States has had an increased military presence in numerous Muslim countries. Attitudes toward US military forces are, of course, embedded in a broader set of perceptions of US goals in relat ion to the Muslim world. These perceptions of US goals are in turn embedded in broader attitudes about the US government and how it operates in the world. Once the complex attitudes about America’s role and the methods that are used by groups like al Qaeda against America are understood, we can turn to the question of how people in Muslim countries feel about al Qaeda and groups that attack Americans. A central goal of al Qaeda is to make Muslim societies more ‘Islamist’, i.e., more aligned with traditional interpretations of Islam and Shari’a law. Finally, there is probably no more central front in the conflict between al Qaeda and the US than the status of governments in the Muslim world that are supported by the US: namely Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan. To answer these and other questions WorldPublicOpinion.org conducted an in-depth survey of public opinion in Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia. This is the second wave of surveys and was conducted between July 28 and September 6, 2008: the first was conducted in late 2006 and early 2007. The research was primarily supported by the START Consortium at the University of Maryland. Other scholars of the START Consortium participated in the development of the questionnaire for both waves.

Sweden: Muslims as percent of the total population: The latest value from is percent, unavailable from percent in . In comparison, the world average is 0.0 percent, based on data from countries. Historically, the average for Sweden from to is percent. The minimum value, percent, was reached in while the maximum of percent was recorded in .

Saudi Arabia Imports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Indonesia data was reported at 6,272.088 SAR mn in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 6,296.000 SAR mn for 2016. Saudi Arabia Imports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Indonesia data is updated yearly, averaging 1,575.000 SAR mn from Dec 1984 (Median) to 2017, with 34 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 9,559.238 SAR mn in 2015 and a record low of 215.000 SAR mn in 1985. Saudi Arabia Imports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Indonesia data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by General Authority for Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.JA019: Imports: by Country.

The project had two main dimensions: the first is theoretical and the second is empirical, focusing on three case studies (Moscow, Tatarstan and Dagestan). The theoretical aspect of the project examines two main sets of questions: First, how the general concepts of extremism and moderation, and the associated concept of radicalization, are understood in the Russian context. How is radicalization linked to identity politics(ethnicity, nationalism and religion) and radical ideological movements? Second, how these concepts - moderation, extremism, and radicalization- applied in discourses and policies towards Muslim communities in Russia? What are the presumed internal and external influences? What are the comparisons and links with elite discourse in other European countries with significant Muslim communities, such as UK and France? The empirical aspect of the project examines how these general concepts and approaches help to illuminate and explains developments in regions of Russian where there exist sizeable Muslim communities. The three case studies chosen include a) the city of Moscow, where it is estimated that there are 1-2 million Muslims, representing at least 10% of the population; b) Tatarstan, which has an ethnic Tatar Muslim plurality and which is often taken to be the best example of the influence of moderate Islam; c) Dagestan, which is regularly taken to be the region with the greatest potential danger, apart form Chechnya, of Islamic radicalization. The dataset was originally intended to include transcriptions of elite interviews which would have been in the format of elite interview-audio files. However, as we warned might be the case, it did not prove possible to gain consent to recording the interviews. This project investigates the causes of Islamic radicalisation within Russia and their consequences for Russia's relevant domestic policies (for example ethnic, regional, immigration policies, and domestic democratisation), as well as its foreign policy response towards the Muslim world in the context of the global 'War on Terror'. There are four principal research questions:(1) How Russian policy-making and academic elites conceptualise the idea of 'radicalisation' and political violence. (2) How these discourses are translated into state practice and policy. (3) How these state-driven practices feed or undermine underlying processes of radicalisation. (4) How Russia's domestic context of combating radicalisation drives its foreign policy. The project methodology includes a discourse analysis of academic and journalistic writings and three regional case studies of Russian state policy towards Islam (Moscow, Tatarstan and Dagestan). Each case study relies on discourse analysis of public and media approaches, content analysis of relevant legal and state policy documents, and semi-structured elite interviews. The project co-ordinators will work with local institutes in Russia and will invite scholars from these institutes to the UK as research fellows. The project findings will be disseminated by four journal articles, policy briefings and a co-authored monograph. The interviews were in semi-structured format. Unfortunately, consent was not obtained for audio recording of the interviews. There were 20 principal interviews with Russian elites in academia and politics and among Muslim communities in Russia; in Moscow, Tatarstan and Dagestan.

Spain has a long history of Islamic tradition under its belt. From cuisine to architecture, the southern European country has been linked to the North of Africa through many common elements. At the end of 2023, there were approximately 2.41 million Muslims in Spain, most of them of Spanish and Moroccan nationality, with upwards of eight hundred thousand believers in both cases. With a Muslim population of more than 660,000 people, Catalonia was home to the largest Muslim community in Spain as of the same date.

The not so Catholic Spain

Believers of a religion other than Catholicism accounted for approximately 3 percent of the Spanish population, according to the most recent data. Although traditionally a Catholic country, Spain saw a decline in the number of believers over the past years. Compared to previous years, when the share of believers accounted for slightly over 70 percent of the Spanish population, the Catholic community lost ground, while still being the major religion for the foreseable future.

A Catholic majority, a practicing minority

Going to mass is no longer a thing in Spain, or so it would seem when looking at the latest statistics about the matter: 50 percent of those who consider themselves Catholics almost never attend any religious service in 2024. The numbers increased until 2019, from 55.5 percent of the population never attending religious services in 2011 to 63.1 percent in 2019. The share of population that stated to be practicing believers and go to mass every Sunday and on the most important holidays accounted for only 15.5 percent.

Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Senegal data was reported at 99.469 SAR mn in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 124.847 SAR mn for 2015. Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Senegal data is updated yearly, averaging 74.000 SAR mn from Dec 2004 (Median) to 2016, with 13 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 166.000 SAR mn in 2013 and a record low of 0.000 SAR mn in 2009. Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Senegal data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by General Authority for Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.JA006: Exports: by Country.

Saudi Arabia Exports: Non-Arab Islamic Countries data was reported at 6,979.768 SAR mn in Dec 2024. This records a decrease from the previous number of 7,604.371 SAR mn for Nov 2024. Saudi Arabia Exports: Non-Arab Islamic Countries data is updated monthly, averaging 5,204.671 SAR mn from Jan 2017 (Median) to Dec 2024, with 96 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11,513.076 SAR mn in May 2022 and a record low of 2,206.618 SAR mn in Apr 2020. Saudi Arabia Exports: Non-Arab Islamic Countries data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by General Authority for Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.JA012: Exports: by Region. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Pakistan data was reported at 10,410.366 SAR mn in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 7,934.000 SAR mn for 2016. Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Pakistan data is updated yearly, averaging 4,296.500 SAR mn from Dec 1984 (Median) to 2017, with 34 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 16,630.000 SAR mn in 2008 and a record low of 1,000.000 SAR mn in 1986. Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Pakistan data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by General Authority for Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.JA006: Exports: by Country.

Egypt: Sunni Muslims as percent of the total population: The latest value from 2013 is 90 percent, unchanged from 90 percent in 2012. In comparison, the world average is 64.3 percent, based on data from 32 countries. Historically, the average for Egypt from 1960 to 2013 is 90.9 percent. The minimum value, 90 percent, was reached in 2004 while the maximum of 92 percent was recorded in 1960.

Saudi Arabia Imports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Others data was reported at 1,113.991 SAR mn in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 94.000 SAR mn for 2016. Saudi Arabia Imports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Others data is updated yearly, averaging 275.500 SAR mn from Dec 1984 (Median) to 2017, with 34 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,113.991 SAR mn in 2017 and a record low of 3.000 SAR mn in 2006. Saudi Arabia Imports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Others data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by General Authority for Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.JA019: Imports: by Country.

Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Cameroon data was reported at 44.000 SAR mn in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 62.497 SAR mn for 2015. Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Cameroon data is updated yearly, averaging 59.000 SAR mn from Dec 2004 (Median) to 2016, with 13 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 96.000 SAR mn in 2011 and a record low of 11.000 SAR mn in 2004. Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Cameroon data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by General Authority for Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.JA006: Exports: by Country.

Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Gabon data was reported at 3.850 SAR mn in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 5.684 SAR mn for 2015. Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Gabon data is updated yearly, averaging 5.684 SAR mn from Dec 2004 (Median) to 2016, with 13 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 311.000 SAR mn in 2013 and a record low of 0.000 SAR mn in 2005. Saudi Arabia Exports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Gabon data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by General Authority for Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.JA006: Exports: by Country.

Mexico: Muslims as percent of the total population: The latest value from is percent, unavailable from percent in . In comparison, the world average is 0.0 percent, based on data from countries. Historically, the average for Mexico from to is percent. The minimum value, percent, was reached in while the maximum of percent was recorded in .

Abstract

In order to develop various methods of comparable data collection on health and health system responsiveness WHO started a scientific survey study in 2000-2001. This study has used a common survey instrument in nationally representative populations with modular structure for assessing health of indviduals in various domains, health system responsiveness, household health care expenditures, and additional modules in other areas such as adult mortality and health state valuations.

The health module of the survey instrument was based on selected domains of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and was developed after a rigorous scientific review of various existing assessment instruments. The responsiveness module has been the result of ongoing work over the last 2 years that has involved international consultations with experts and key informants and has been informed by the scientific literature and pilot studies.

Questions on household expenditure and proportionate expenditure on health have been borrowed from existing surveys. The survey instrument has been developed in multiple languages using cognitive interviews and cultural applicability tests, stringent psychometric tests for reliability (i.e. test-retest reliability to demonstrate the stability of application) and most importantly, utilizing novel psychometric techniques for cross-population comparability.

The study was carried out in 61 countries completing 71 surveys because two different modes were intentionally used for comparison purposes in 10 countries. Surveys were conducted in different modes of in- person household 90 minute interviews in 14 countries; brief face-to-face interviews in 27 countries and computerized telephone interviews in 2 countries; and postal surveys in 28 countries. All samples were selected from nationally representative sampling frames with a known probability so as to make estimates based on general population parameters.

The survey study tested novel techniques to control the reporting bias between different groups of people in different cultures or demographic groups ( i.e. differential item functioning) so as to produce comparable estimates across cultures and groups. To achieve comparability, the selfreports of individuals of their own health were calibrated against well-known performance tests (i.e. self-report vision was measured against standard Snellen's visual acuity test) or against short descriptions in vignettes that marked known anchor points of difficulty (e.g. people with different levels of mobility such as a paraplegic person or an athlete who runs 4 km each day) so as to adjust the responses for comparability . The same method was also used for self-reports of individuals assessing responsiveness of their health systems where vignettes on different responsiveness domains describing different levels of responsiveness were used to calibrate the individual responses.

This data are useful in their own right to standardize indicators for different domains of health (such as cognition, mobility, self care, affect, usual activities, pain, social participation, etc.) but also provide a better measurement basis for assessing health of the populations in a comparable manner. The data from the surveys can be fed into composite measures such as "Healthy Life Expectancy" and improve the empirical data input for health information systems in different regions of the world. Data from the surveys were also useful to improve the measurement of the responsiveness of different health systems to the legitimate expectations of the population.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Cleaning operations

Data Coding At each site the data was coded by investigators to indicate the respondent status and the selection of the modules for each respondent within the survey design. After the interview was edited by the supervisor and considered adequate it was entered locally.

Data Entry Program A data entry program was developed in WHO specifically for the survey study and provided to the sites. It was developed using a database program called the I-Shell (short for Interview Shell), a tool designed for easy development of computerized questionnaires and data entry (34). This program allows for easy data cleaning and processing.

The data entry program checked for inconsistencies and validated the entries in each field by checking for valid response categories and range checks. For example, the program didn’t accept an age greater than 120. For almost all of the variables there existed a range or a list of possible values that the program checked for.

In addition, the data was entered twice to capture other data entry errors. The data entry program was able to warn the user whenever a value that did not match the first entry was entered at the second data entry. In this case the program asked the user to resolve the conflict by choosing either the 1st or the 2nd data entry value to be able to continue. After the second data entry was completed successfully, the data entry program placed a mark in the database in order to enable the checking of whether this process had been completed for each and every case.

Data Transfer The data entry program was capable of exporting the data that was entered into one compressed database file which could be easily sent to WHO using email attachments or a file transfer program onto a secure server no matter how many cases were in the file. The sites were allowed the use of as many computers and as many data entry personnel as they wanted. Each computer used for this purpose produced one file and they were merged once they were delivered to WHO with the help of other programs that were built for automating the process. The sites sent the data periodically as they collected it enabling the checking procedures and preliminary analyses in the early stages of the data collection.

Data quality checks Once the data was received it was analyzed for missing information, invalid responses and representativeness. Inconsistencies were also noted and reported back to sites.

Data Cleaning and Feedback After receipt of cleaned data from sites, another program was run to check for missing information, incorrect information (e.g. wrong use of center codes), duplicated data, etc. The output of this program was fed back to sites regularly. Mainly, this consisted of cases with duplicate IDs, duplicate cases (where the data for two respondents with different IDs were identical), wrong country codes, missing age, sex, education and some other important variables.

Saudi Arabia Imports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Bangladesh data was reported at 1,314.549 SAR mn in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1,383.000 SAR mn for 2016. Saudi Arabia Imports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Bangladesh data is updated yearly, averaging 67.500 SAR mn from Dec 1984 (Median) to 2017, with 34 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,383.000 SAR mn in 2016 and a record low of 2.000 SAR mn in 1989. Saudi Arabia Imports: Value: Non Arab Islamic Countries: Bangladesh data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by General Authority for Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.JA019: Imports: by Country.