This statistic shows the estimated number of Muslims living in different European countries as of 2016. Approximately **** million Muslims were estimated to live in France, the most of any country listed. Germany and the United Kingdom also have large muslim populations with **** million and **** million respectively.
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The average for 2013 based on 27 countries was 12.7 percent. The highest value was in Turkey: 99 percent and the lowest value was in Belarus: 0 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2013. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.
This statistic shows the estimated Muslim share of the population in different European countries as of 2016. With a Muslim population that makes up around a quarter of it's population, Cyprus has the highest estimated share of Muslims living in its borders. The Muslim share of the Bulgarian and French populations is also quite high with **** and *** percent shares respectively. Portugal, Romania, Czechia and Poland have the lowest Muslim shares of the population at under *** percent.
This statistic displays the projected Muslim population proportions in selected European countries in 2050, by scenario. In 2010 the proportion of Muslims in the population of Germany was *** percent, compared with *** percent in the UK and *** percent in France. Depending on the different migration scenarios estimated here, Germany's share of Muslims in the population could rise up to **** percent of it's population by 2050, higher than both the UK and France, with projected Muslim populations of **** and ** percent respectively.
This statistic displays the projected Muslim population of Europe from 2010 to 2050, compared with that of non-Muslims. For the 2050 projections, three different scenarios are presented, one for zero migration to Europe, one for medium migration and the last for a high level of immigration. In the scenario where zero-migration occurs the total non-Muslim population of Europe would actually decrease from ****** million people to ****** million people. In the high migration scenario, Muslims are predicted to number ***** million people, in which the total non-Muslim population of Europe is ****** million.
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.
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.
In 2020, around **** percent of the Iranian population identified as Muslim. Around ** percent identified as Shia Muslims in the same year, while a much smaller share followed the Sunni Muslim religion. In Iran, most Sunni Muslims belong to ethnic minority groups. Iran’s demographics The total population in Iran has grown steadily and is expected to surpass ** million in 2028. The vast majority of the population in the country was between 15 and 64 years of age. At the same time, the share of people aged above 64 increased in recent years and constituted over ***** percent of the total population. Muslim population worldwide In Europe, it was estimated that the Muslim population could triple by the middle of the century. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia had the largest share of Muslims as a proportion of its population. On the African continent, the highest number of Muslims was estimated in Nigeria, with close to a hundred million Islam followers. In the United States, less than one percent of the population identified as Muslims.
Christianity is the major religion in numerous African countries. As of 2024, around 96 percent of the population of Zambia was Christian, representing the highest percentage on the continent. Seychelles and Rwanda followed with roughly 95 percent and 94 percent of the population being Christian, respectively. While these countries present the highest percentages, Christianity was also prevalent in many other African nations. For instance, in South Africa, Christianity was the religion of nearly 85 percent of the people, while the share corresponded to 71 percent in Ghana. Religious variations across Africa Christianity and Islam are the most practiced religions in Africa. Christian adherents are prevalent below the Sahara, while North Africa is predominantly Muslim. In 2020, Christians accounted for around 60 percent of the Sub-Saharan African population, followed by Muslims with a share of roughly 30 percent. In absolute terms, there were approximately 650 million Christians in the region, a number forecast to increase to over one billion by 2050. In contrast, Islam is most prevalent in North Africa, being the religion of over 90 percent of the population in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya. Christianity in the world As opposed to other religions, Christianity is widely spread across continents worldwide. In fact, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe each account for around 25 percent of the global Christian population. By comparison, Asia-Pacific and North America make up 13 percent and 12 percent of Christians worldwide, respectively. In several regions, Christians also suffer persecution on religious grounds. Somalia and Libya presented the most critical situation in Africa in 2021, reporting the strongest suppression of Christians worldwide just after North Korea and Afghanistan.
Worldwide, the male population is slightly higher than the female population, although this varies by country. As of 2024, Hong Kong has the highest share of women worldwide with almost ** percent. Moldova followed behind with around ** percent. Among the countries with the largest share of women in the total population, several were former Soviet states or were located in Eastern Europe. By contrast, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman had some of the highest proportions of men in their populations.
Jews were the dominant religious group in the Israel-Palestine region at the beginning of the first millennia CE, and are the dominant religious group there today, however, there was a period of almost 2,000 years where most of the world's Jews were displaced from their spiritual homeland. Antiquity to the 20th century Jewish hegemony in the region began changing after a series of revolts against Roman rule led to mass expulsions and emigration. Roman control saw severe persecution of Jewish and Christian populations, but this changed when the Byzantine Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion in the 4th century. Christianity then dominated until the 7th century, when the Rashidun Caliphate (the first to succeed Muhammad) took control of the Levant. Control of region split between Christians and Muslims intermittently between the 11th and 13th centuries during the Crusades, although the population remained overwhelmingly Muslim. Zionism until today Through the Paris Peace Conference, the British took control of Palestine in 1920. The Jewish population began growing through the Zionist Movement after the 1880s, which sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Rising anti-Semitism in Europe accelerated this in the interwar period, and in the aftermath of the Holocaust, many European Jews chose to leave the continent. The United Nations tried facilitating the foundation of separate Jewish and Arab states, yet neither side was willing to concede territory, leading to a civil war and a joint invasion from seven Arab states. Yet the Jews maintained control of their territory and took large parts of the proposed Arab territory, forming the Jewish-majority state of Israel in 1948, and acheiving a ceasefire the following year. Over 750,000 Palestinians were displaced as a result of this conflict, while most Jews from the Arab eventually fled to Israel. Since this time, Israel has become one of the richest and advanced countries in the world, however, Palestine has been under Israeli military occupation since the 1960s and there are large disparities in living standards between the two regions.
The two countries with the greatest shares of the world's Jewish population are the United States and Israel. The United States had been a hub of Jewish immigration since the nineteenth century, as Jewish people sought to escape persecution in Europe by emigrating across the Atlantic. The Jewish population in the U.S. is largely congregated in major urban areas, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, with the New York metropolitan area being the city with the second largest Jewish population worldwide, after Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel is the world's only officially Jewish state, having been founded in 1948 following the first Arab-Israeli War. While Jews had been emigrating to the holy lands since the nineteenth century, when they were controlled by the Ottoman Empire, immigration increased rapidly following the establishment of the state of Israel. Jewish communities in Eastern Europe who had survived the Holocaust saw Israel as a haven from persecution, while the state encouraged immigration from Jewish communities in other regions, notably the Middle East & North Africa. Smaller Jewish communities remain in Europe in countries such as France, the UK, and Germany, and in other countries which were hotspots for Jewish migration in the twentieth century, such as Canada and Argentina.
In 2024, Turkey was the country that hosted the highest amount of Syrian refugees, amounting up to 3.1 million refugees. Lebanon was second, hosting 775,000 Syrian refugees. The data refers to the total number of Syrian refugees in a given country, not considering the date of their application for asylum or the date of their flight.
This statistic depicts global views on premarital sex in 2013. In Indonesia, 97 percent of residents believe that premarital sex among adults is morally unacceptable. Sex before marriage Nine out of ten people in Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, and Turkey believed that engaging in sex before marriage was not acceptable. The majority of the Europeans found premarital sex to be morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world totaling over 209 million people. In some religions, like Catholicism and Islam, having sex before marriage is considered morally unacceptable. Other predominantly religious countries such as Jordan and Pakistan also have similar rates of this belief.In the United States, 29 percent of people consider the act of having sex before marriage as morally wrong while 20 percent believe that getting a divorce is also morally unacceptable . Abstinence-only sex education is not uncommon in the United States where states can apply for federal funding for these programs. Abstinence-only programs try to prevent teens or all unmarried individuals from having any sexual activity. Critics state that these programs often include negative messages about sexuality, gender roles, and may also try to minimize the effectiveness of birth control. Some 13 percent of teenage students desire more information about contraceptive use . Education about contraception and safe sex can help prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
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This statistic shows the estimated number of Muslims living in different European countries as of 2016. Approximately **** million Muslims were estimated to live in France, the most of any country listed. Germany and the United Kingdom also have large muslim populations with **** million and **** million respectively.