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.

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 1995, Israel had a Jewish population of approximately 4.5 million people, of whom approximately 1.75 million were born abroad. Over one million of these immigrants were born in Europe, with over 650,000 of these born in the former Soviet Union. Despite Poland having the largest Jewish population in the world in the pre-WWII years, the number of Polish Jewish migrants and descendents in Israel was relatively small in 1995 when compared to the USSR due to the impact of the Holocaust.

Outside of Europe, Morocco had the largest number of Jewish immigrants and descendents in Israel by 1995. Morocco had the largest Jewish population in the Muslim world when Israel was founded in 1948, with over 250,000 people. Many Moroccan Jews sought to emigrate to Israel at this time, but often faced resistance from authorities and local populations who believed the Jews would join in the fight against the Arab forces seeking to establish a Muslim state in Palestine. The government of Morocco then officially prohibited emigration to Israel after gaining independence from France in 1956, however this policy was reversed in 1961 whereby the Moroccan government began facilitating Jewish emigration to Israel in return for payments from Jewish organizations in the U.S. and Israel. By the 1970s, Morocco's Jewish population had fallen to less than 15 percent of its size in 1948.

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.

This statistic represents the proportion of French Muslim women wearing a headscarf in 2008-2009 and in 2019-2020. According to the source, in 2020, ** percent of Muslim women who were immigrants from North Africa but living in France, wore a headscarf. The different types of Islamic headwear Islam recommends that its followers adopt modest behavior. Thus, women are invited to maintain their modesty by dressing in such a way as to preserve their privacy from the eyes of men, particularly by wearing a veil to cover their hair. However, according to the Quran, wearing a headscarf is not mandatory for Muslim women, who remain free to wear them or not. There are several types of veils with different levels of coverage. While it initially designates all types of veils, the "hijab" is now mainly used to refer to a scarf that covers the head and hair, but not the face. Uncommon in France, the “niqab” masks the entire face apart from the eyes and is often worn with a black garment covering the entire body, including the hands. The “burqa” is a garment, often blue, mainly worn in Afghanistan, which covers the entire woman's body leaving an opening for the eyes, which are protected by a sheer layer. Its use was imposed by the Taliban in the late 1990s. Other veils exist among different Muslim communities of the world, like the "chador", mostly worn in Iran. In France, as in other European countries, full-face veils (notably the "niqab" and the "burqa") are prohibited, although very minor. Wearing a headscarf in Western societies The way Muslim women dress is often a matter of tension and discussion. After the first controversy around the burkini in 2016, the issue of wearing the veil in certain French public places was raised again in 2019 during a school trip to a Regional Council, when a chaperone of the group was asked by an elected representative to take off her "hijab". Some people sometimes tend to confuse the use of Islamic headwear with extremist religious movements.

In 2023, the United Kingdom was the country with the leading number of inbound tourists from Europe to Saudi Arabia, with roughly 680 thousand visitors. Due to its large Muslim population, many visitors to Saudi Arabia from the UK travel to the Kingdom for to perform a religious pilgrimage to the two holy cities of Makkah and Al-Madinah. The total number of European tourists during this was around 2.7 million.