By 2050, India Will Have Largest Muslim Population, Says Pew
Jama Masjid in New Delhi.
New Delhi, 04 Jumadil Awwal 1438/03 March 2017 (MINA) – India will have the largest population of Muslims in the world by 2050, American think tank Pew Research Centre predicted in a new report titled ‘Muslims Are the Fastest-Growing Religious Group in the World’. India will have more than 300 million Muslims by 2050, DNA reported Friday, citing to the Pew report.
At 249 million, Indonesia currently has the world’s largest Muslim population.
According to the 2011 census, India has 170 million Muslims accounting for the 14.23 per cent of the population.
In 2010, there were 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and if the current demographic trends continue, the Muslim population is expected to exceed the number of Christians by the end of this century. Islam is currently the world’s second-largest religion after Christianity and is the fastest-growing religion on the planet.
The report added that the Muslim population in Europe is growing too. Ten per cent of all Europeans will be Muslims by 2050, it said.
About 3.3 million Muslims lived in the US in 2015, about one per cent of the US population. Demographic projections estimate Muslims in 2050 will make up 2.1 per cent of US population.
A majority of Muslims, almost 62 per cent, live in the Asia-Pacific region which includes, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey, among others.
The Pew report attributed the rapid projected growth of Islam across the globe to two factors, and both involve simple demographics. For one, the report said, Muslims have more children than members of other religious groups.
Around the world, each Muslim woman has an average of 3.1 children, compared with 2.3 for all other groups combined. Muslims are also the youngest (median age of 23 years old in 2010) of all major religious groups, seven years younger than the median age of non-Muslims, the Pew research said.
As a result, a larger share of Muslims already are, or will soon be, at the point in their lives when they begin having children. This, combined with high fertility rates, will fuel Muslim population growth, it added. (T/RS05/RS01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)