PAKISTAN is expected to surpass Indonesia as the country with the single largest Muslim population even as the world’s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35% in the next 20 years.
According to new population projections by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, the world’s Muslim population is expected to touch 2.2 billion by 2030 from the current 1.6 billion.
Globally, the Muslim population is forecast to grow at about twice the rate of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades — an average annual growth rate of 1.5% for Muslims, compared with 0.7% for non-Muslims.
The Pew report said that if current trends continue, Muslims will make up 26.4% of the world’s total projected population of 8.3 billion in 2030, up from 23.4% of the estimated 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.
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However, the Muslim population nevertheless is expected to grow at a slower pace in the next two decades than it did in the previous two decades. From 1990 to 2010, the global Muslim population increased at an average annual rate of 2.2%, compared with the projected rate of 1.5% for the period from 2010 to 2030.
The Pew report seeks to provide up-to-date estimates of the number of Muslims around the world in 2010.
As many as 79 countries will have a million or more Muslim inhabitants in 2030, up from 72 countries today.
A majority of the world’s Muslims (about 60%) will continue to live in the Asia-Pacific region, while about 20% will live in the Middle East and North Africa, as is the case today.
Pakistan is expected to surpass Indonesia as the country with the single largest Muslim population.
Although Muslims will remain relatively small minorities in Europe and the Americas, they are expected to constitute a growing share of the total population in these regions, the report added.
