How many Muslims are there in the world now? Source?

Question

One source says 1.2 billion (2006 figure)
Another says 1.4 billion (2006 figure)
Another says 1.6 billion (2006 figure)
Another even says 2 billion (A Muslim of course)

I can understand a margin of error of a couple hundred million, but what's with the conflicting statistics?

Who's keeping track, and who subtracts from these figures when people leave Islam?

My objection is to the amazing disrcepency between one figure to the next.

Who cares? I'd say dozens the Muslims who are constantly bragging about how many Muslims there are in the world. If they didn't care, they wouldn't brag.

Nice evasion...very slick!

Thats a great point Taimur. Those people should be removed from the list. Thanks =)

Answer 1

"I can understand a margin of error of a couple hundred million, but what's with the conflicting statistics?"

If you discount the 2 billion figure, that's exactly what you have in your own numbers -- a margin of error of a couple hundred million.

The definition of a Muslim is one who takes the Shahada. This can be a private ceremony and you need not tell anyone about it -- nor register with a mosque or government. Nor do you have to tell a mosque or government when you leave. However, mosque and government statistics are how most people come up with these estimates.

Throw in political motives of the people counting, and you get the wide variation that you are seeing.

When people leave Islam, they would -- assuming the bookkeeping is accurate -- appear in the count of a different religion. And the total of all religions (including atheism and agnosticism) should be equal to the human population. While that is also uncertain, it provides a sanity-check on the numbers. People leaving Islam would presumably be counted under other religions.

The wikipedia article I've cited gives not only estimates (based on adherents.com) but also a listing of the issues involved. The detailed question you asked indicates that you're more interested in methodology than the exact number -- which is unknowable, dependent on definitions, and constantly in flux.

One thing that is remarkably similar in all the estimates I've seen, for many years, is that the ratio of Muslims:Christians is about 2:3 and the ratio of Muslims:Jews is about 80:1.

Answer 2

I have ever read in the news paper that the total of muslims around the world is about 2 billion.But if you want the exact number you must count one by one around the world on the same date.It is impossible.In every country there is no census of its population annualy because it takes much time and cost.They made only an estimate..UNO could collect those estimates from all counties in this world.You can ask the offici
al of UNO in New York
The estimate is based on the last census and then add with new born muslim babies(birth rate),new converting muslims and minus the dead muslims (death rate) and also maybe new diverting muslims to other religion.
In each country I think there is a certral(national) statistical office.In Indonesi has almost 200 million muslims,.in China there are more than 100 muslims..Pakistan,Bengladesh and middle east countries and several countries in Africa have more muslims than any other religion followers

Answer 3

Religions are hard things to track. For one, of course, none of these counts is actually counting each member individually. It's working from sample sources. Second, how do you define a Muslim? Do you count someone who says they are Muslim but never attends a mosque? Do you count Sufis, who generally consider themselves Muslims even though many Sunnis and Shias do not?

The textbook I was teaching out of in 2003 said there was 1.7 billion Muslims (and 2.1 billion Christians). Wikipedia says that there are between 1.1 and 1.8 billion Muslims as of 2006, and they're referencing adherents.com.

Answer 4

:-)

mm... what is your objection with the number either 1bil or 2 bil.

one Indonesia probably representing around 200mil Muslim, not mentioning other Muslim country like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Malaysia.. middle east country..

well who care!


peace

Answer 5

some ppl join some ppl leave others disappear others die!

who knows anymore!

Answer 6

1.2

yea,,and who is subtracting the massacre done in iraq and afghanistan

Answer 7

this is what i found hope this helps

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html


HOW MANY MUSLIMS ARE IN THE U.S. AND THE REST OF THE WORLD

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Number of Muslims in the world:
Estimates of the total number of Muslims in the world vary greatly:

0.700 billion or more, Barnes & Noble Encyclopedia 1993

0.817 billion, The Universal Almanac (1996)

0.951 billion, The Cambridge Factfinder (1993)

1.100 billion, The World Almanac (1997)

1.200 billion, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic relations)
At a level of 1.2 billion, they represent about 22% of the world's population. They are the second largest religion in the world. Only Christianity is larger, with 33% of the world's inhabitants.
Islam is growing about 2.9% per year. This is faster than the total world population which increases about 2.3% annually. It is thus attracting a progressively larger percentage of the world's population.

Number of Muslims in the U.S.
Nobody knows.
This is a political hot-potato. Some non-Muslims have accused Muslims of exaggerated their numbers in order to obtain more political clout. Some Muslims have accused non-Muslims of releasing false, low numbers in order to "marginalize" Islam. 4 In religion, as in war, truth is often the first casualty.
Estimates of the number of Muslims in North America range from a little over one million adults to seven million adults and children. One cause of the disagreement appears to be related to the percentage of Muslim immigrants:

Who have abandoned Islam since they arrived in the US, or

Who still consider themselves to be Muslims, but who do not participate in mosque activities.
Estimates include:
Date
Number of Muslims
Note
Source
Ref.
2001-
1.1 million adults; 1.8 million adults and children
A
ARIS study
2
2000
1.6 million
B
Glenmary Research Center
1
2001-OCT
1.9 million
C
National Opinion Research Center
6
2001-APR
2 million Muslims
D
Hartford Institute for Religious Research
3
2001
2.8 million
E
American Jewish Committee
4
2001
4.1 million
F
Britannica book of the Year
6
2001
A little over 5 million
G
Abdul Malik Mujahid
9
2001
5.78 million
H
World Almanac
7
1995
6 million
I
CAIR
6
1997
6.7 million
J
Ilyas Ba-Yunus
8
2001-APR
6 to 7 million
K
Prof. Ihsan Bagby
6
2001
7.0
L
Four Islamic groups
4
2002
7.0
M
CAIR
5
1998
12 million
N
Pakistani newspaper
10

http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_numb.htm



Muslims in Europe: Country guide
Islam is widely considered Europe's fastest growing religion, with immigration and above average birth rates leading to a rapid increase in the Muslim population.
The exact number of Muslims is difficult to establish however, as census figures are often questioned and many countries choose not to compile such information anyway.

ALBANIA
Total population: 3.1 million
Muslim population: 2.2 million (70%)
Background: Religious worship was banned in Albania until the transition from Stalinist state to democracy in the 1990s. Islam is now openly recognised as the country's major religion and most Albanians are Sunni Muslim by virtue of the nation's history: The Balkans has had centuries of association with the faith as many parts of it were part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. While the empire is long gone, the culture remained in place. Significant populations of Albanian Muslims exist in a number of other European countries.
Sources: Total population - Albanian Institute of Statistics, 2005; Muslim population - UK Foreign Office.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4385768.stm

Muslim world
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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007)


Nations with a Muslim majority appear in green, while nations that are approximately 50% Muslim appear yellow.
The term Muslim world (or Islamic world) has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Muslims, adherents of Islam. This community numbers about 1.3-1.5 billion people, about one-fifth and one-fourth of the world. This community is spread across many different nations and ethnic groups connected only by religion. In a historical or geopolitical sense the term usually refers collectively to majority Muslim countries or countries in which Islam dominates politically.
The worldwide Muslim community is also known collectively as the ummah. Islam emphasizes unity and defense of fellow Muslims, although many divisions of Islam (such as the Sunni-Shia split) exist. In the past both Pan-Islamism and nationalist currents have influenced the status of the Muslim world.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_world





Islam in China
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Islam in China


History of Islam in China
History
Tang Dynasty
Song Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
Islam in China (1911-present)
Architecture
Chinese mosques
Niujie Mosque
Major figures
Yusuf Ma Dexin • Zheng He • Liu Zhi
Haji Noor
People Groups
Hui • Salar • Uygur
Kazakhs • Kyrgyz • Tatars • Bonan
Uzbeks • Tibetans • Dongxiang
Tajiks • Utsul
Islamic Cities/Regions
Linxia • Xinjiang
Ningxia • Kashgar
Culture
Islamic Association of China
Cuisine • Calligraphy • Martial arts
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China has some of the oldest Muslim history, dating back to as early as 650, when the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, Sa`ad ibn Abi Waqqas, was sent as an official envoy to Emperor Gaozong. Throughout the history of Islam in China, Chinese Muslims have influenced the course of Chinese history.
History
Main article: History of Islam in China


The Great Mosque of Xi'an, one of China's oldest mosques
Islam was first brought to China by an envoy sent by Uthman, the third Caliph, in 651, less than twenty years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The envoy was led by Sa`d ibn Abī Waqqās, the maternal uncle of the Prophet himself. Yung Wei, the Tang emperor who received the envoy then ordered the construction of the Memorial mosque in Canton, the first mosque in the country. It was during the Tang Dynasty that China had its golden day of cosmopolitan culture which helped the introduction of Islam. The first major Muslim settlements in China consisted of Arab and Persian merchants.[1] In the region, the Hui Chi tribe accepted Islam, and the name was the beginnings of the reference to the huihui or the Hui as they are know today.
By the time of the Song Dynasty, Muslims had come to dominate the import/export industry.[2] The office of Director General of Shipping was consistently held by a Muslim during this period.[3]In 1070, the Song emperor Shenzong invited 5,300 Muslim men from Bukhara, to settle in China in order to create a buffer zone between the Chinese and the Liao empire in the northeast. Later on these men were settled between the Sung capital of Kaifeng and Yenching (modern day Beijing).[4] They were led by Prince Amir Sayyid "So-fei-er" (his Chinese name) who was reputed of being called the "father" of the Muslim community in China. Prior to him Islam was named by the Tang and Song Chinese as Ta-shi fa ("law of Islam"). He renamed it to Hui Hui Jiao ("the Religion of Double return").[5] It was during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, (1274 - 1368), that large numbers of Muslims settled in China. The Mongols, a minority in China, gave Muslim immigrants an elevated status over the native Han Chinese as part of their governing strategy, thus giving Muslims a heavy influence. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims immigrants were recruited and forcibly relocated from Western and Central Asia by the Mongols to help them administer their rapidly expanding empire.[6] The Mongols used Persian, Arab and Uyghur administrators to act as officers of taxation and finance. Muslims headed most corporations in China in the early Yuan period.[7] Muslim scholars were brought to work on calendar making and astronomy.
During the following Ming Dynasty, Muslims continued to be influential around government circles. Six of Ming Dynasty founder Zhu Yuanzhang's most trusted generals were Muslim, including Lan Yu who, in 1388, led a strong imperial Ming army out of the Great Wall and won a decisive victory over the Mongols in Mongolia, effectively ending the Mongol dream to re-conquer China. Additionally, the Yongle Emperor hired Zheng He, perhaps the most famous Chinese Muslim and China's foremost explorer, to lead seven expeditions to the Indian Ocean, from 1405 and 1433. However, during the Ming Dynasty, new immigration to China from Muslim countries was restricted in an increasingly isolationist nation. The Muslims in China who were descended from earlier immigration began to assimilate by speaking Chinese dialects and by adopting Chinese names and culture. Mosque architecture began to follow traditional Chinese architecture.
The rise of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) made relations between the Muslims and Chinese more difficult. The dynasty prohibited ritual slaughtering of animals, followed by forbidding the construction of new mosques and the pilgrimage to Mecca.[8] The Qing rulers belonged to the Manchu, a minority in China, and employed the tactics of divide and conquer to keep the Muslims, Hans, Tibetans and Mongolians in conflict with each other. These repressive policies resulted in five bloody Hui rebellions, most notably the Panthay Rebellion, which occurred in Yunnan province from 1855 to 1873, and the Dungan revolt, which occurred mostly in Xinjiang, Shensi and Gansu, from 1862 to 1877.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Sun Yat Sen, who established the Republic of China immediately proclaimed that the country belonged equally to the Han, Hui (Muslim), Meng (Mongol), and the Tsang (Tibetan) peoples. Conditions for the Muslims worsened during the Cultural Revolution. The government began to relax its policies towards Muslims in 1978. Today, Islam is experiencing a modest revival and there are now many mosques in China. There has been an upsurge in Islamic expression and many nation-wide Islamic associations have been organized to co-ordinate inter-ethnic activities among Muslims.[9]
[edit] People
See also: Hui people, Uyghur people, Kazak, Dongxiang, Kyrgyz, Salar, Tajik, Uzbek, Bonan, Tatar, and Tibetan Muslims
[edit] Ethnic Groups
Muslims live in every region of China. The highest concentrations are found in the northwest provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu, and Ningxia, with significant populations also found throughout Yunnan province in southwest China and Henan Province in central China. Of China’s 55 officially recognized minority peoples, ten groups are predominately Muslim. The largest groups in descending order are Hui (9.8 million in year 2000 census, or 48% of the officially tabulated number of Muslims), Uyghur (8.4 million, 41%), Kazak (1.25 million , 6.1%), Dongxiang (514,000, 2.5%), Kyrgyz (161,000), Salar (105,000), Tajik (41,000), Uzbek , Bonan (17,000), and Tatar (5,000).[10] However, individual members of traditionally Muslim ethnic groups may profess other religions or none at all, while sizable Muslim communities exist among ethnicities whose members typically belong to other religions, as in the case of the Tibetan Muslims. Muslims live predominantly in the areas that border Central Asia, Tibet and Mongolia, i.e Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai, which is know as the "Quran Belt". [11]
[edit] Number of Muslims in China

The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.
China is home to a large population of adherents of Islam. According to the CIA World Factbook, about 1%-2% of the total population in China are Muslims,[12] while the US Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report shows that Muslims constitute about 1.5% of the Chinese population.[13] The various censuses asserted that there may be up to 20 million Muslims in China.[14]
The BBC gives a range of 20 million to 100 million Muslims in China.[15] The figure of 100 million is based on a 1938 statistical yearbook placing the number of Muslims at 50 million, as well as census data from the 1940s, which showed roughly 48 million Muslims.[16] Demographers at the University of Michigan contend in contrast that the only way the Muslim population of China could be substantially higher than the officially counted 20.3 million in the 2000 census is if there were a very large hidden or uncounted number of Muslims in China; but a large undercount of Muslims has not been documented and remains speculative.[17] However, the accuracy of the religious data in the census is questioned. While official data estimated 100 million religious believers in China, a survey taken by Shanghai University declared a dramatically different 300 million believers, three times the government’s estimate. The survey also found that Buddhism, Taoism, Islam and Christianity are the country's five major religions. The number of followers of Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity in the survey had radically higher numbers than in the census.[18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_China