Adherents of Islam constitute the world's second largest religious group. According to a study in 2015, Islam has 1.8 billion adherents, making up about 24.1% of the world population. Most Muslims are either of two denominations: Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in Central Asia, Indonesia, Middle East, North Africa, the Sahel and some other parts of Asia. The diverse Asia-Pacific region contains the highest number of Muslims in the world, easily surpassing the Middle East and North Africa. South Asia contains the largest population of Muslims in the world. One-third of Muslims are of South Asian origin. Pakistan is the second largest Muslim-majority country in terms of population in the world. Islam is the dominant religion in the Maldives, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. India is the country with the largest Muslim population outside Muslim-majority countries with about 200 million adherents. The various Hamito-Semitic, Arab, Berber, Turkic, and Iranic countries of the greater Middle East-North Africa region, where Islam is the dominant religion in every country other than Israel, host 23% of the world's Muslims. The country with the single largest population of Muslims is Indonesia in Southeast Asia, which on its own hosts 13% of the world's Muslims. Together, the Muslims in the countries of Southeast Asia constitute the world's third-largest population of Muslims. In the countries of the Malay Archipelago, Muslims are majorities in each country other than the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. About 15% of Muslims reside in Sub-Saharan Africa, and sizeable Muslim communities are also found in the Americas, China, Russia, and Europe. Western Europe hosts many Muslim immigrant communities where Islam is the second-largest religion after Christianity, where it represents 6% of the total population or 24 million people. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world.
Denominations
Islam is divided into two major religious denominations: Sunni and Shi'a. Of the total Muslim population, 87–90% are Sunni and 10–13% are Shi'a. Most Shi'as live in mainly four countries: Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and Iraq. The major surviving Imamah-Muslim Sects are Usulism, Nizari Ismailism and Alevism. The other existing groups include Zaydi Shi'a of Yemen whose population is nearly more than 0.5% of the world's Muslim population, Musta’li Ismaili , and Ibadis from the Kharijites whose population has diminished to a level below 0.15%., non-denominational Muslims, Quranist Muslims and Wahhabis also exist. According to the Pew Research Center in 2010, there were 50 Muslim-majority countries. Around 62% of the world's Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region, with over 1 billion adherents. The largest Muslim population in a country is in Indonesia, a nation home to 12.7% of the world's Muslims, followed by Pakistan, and India. About 20% of Muslims live in Arab countries. In the Middle East, the non-Arab countries of Iran and Turkey are the largest Muslim-majority countries; in Africa, Egypt and Nigeria have the most populous Muslim communities. The study found more Muslims in the United Kingdom than in Lebanon and more in China than in Syria. Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has more Muslims than any other Muslim majority countries except Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran and Turkey.
Countries
Most of the percentages of Muslim populations of each country, if not stated otherwise, were taken from the study by the Pew ResearchCenter report of 5 facts about the muslim population in Europe, 2017.
