Nearly one in four people worldwide is Muslim, according to a comprehensive demographic study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The estimate is in line with previous data from other sources like the United Nations and the CIA.
The statistic should remind Southern Baptists the world is full of people who need to hear the gospel, a spokesman for the International Mission Board said.
According to the study, 1.57 billion, or 23 percent, of the world’s estimated 6.8 billion people are Muslim.
By comparison, the worldwide Christian population is estimated to be about 2.2 billion, or 1 in 3 people on the planet, according to the CIA World Factbook.
More than 60 percent of the global Muslim population lives in Asia while about 20 percent is in the Middle East and North Africa. More than 300 million Muslims live in countries where Islam is not the majority religion, Pew said.
Of the total Muslim population, Pew estimated that about 90 percent are Sunni Muslims and roughly 10 percent are Shiite Muslims living mainly in four countries — Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq. (BP)
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