How many Muslims in UK? Figures by nation and the world

How many Muslims are in the UK?

This page does not add the nations together, because each was counted in a different year. Each figure is as its source published it, except Northern Ireland's share, which we worked out.

In England and Wales, percentages use the overall population of England and Wales as the base (source 1). The religion question was voluntary in the England and Wales and Scotland censuses, and a census counts people who described themselves as Muslim. It does not measure how often anyone prays.

NISRA reports the Northern Ireland question as "What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?" (source 3). This page has not compared that wording with the other censuses. The 0.6% is our division of 10,870 by all 1,903,188 usual residents (0.57% before rounding to one decimal place; source 3), because NISRA's table prints counts. The 2011 share is NISRA's own, also to one decimal place (source 7), so the change is only as exact as that.

What is the figure for London?

In the 2021 census, London's Muslim share was 15.0%, up from 12.6% in 2011 (source 1). The bulletin gives no Muslim count for London.

For one local authority, Nomis (the ONS service for census tables) gives 54,146 Muslims among 154,739 usual residents of Blackburn with Darwen in 2021, which is 35.0% (source 9). This page gives no figures for other English regions or local authorities, because we have not read them.

How many Muslims are there in the world?

Pew Research estimates that Muslims were 25.6% of the world's population in 2020, a rise of 1.8 percentage points (source 4). That is about 2.0 billion people on our arithmetic: 25.6% of the 7,885,810,000 people in Pew's world row (source 6). Their number rose by 347 million between 2010 and 2020, more than all other religions combined (source 4).

The report text we read gives shares and changes, not a Muslim total, so this page gives no headcount more precise than our 2.0 billion. The 2025 in the report's date is its publication year, not the year counted. Pew's estimates draw on more than 2,700 sources, including national censuses and large-scale demographic surveys (source 4).

In 2015, Pew projected that by 2050 there would be 2.8 billion Muslims, or 30% of the population (source 5). That projection is separate from Pew's newer 2020 estimates, so the two are not set side by side as one series.

What is the biggest religion in the world?

Pew says Christians remained the world's biggest religious group in 2020, at 2.3 billion people, after a rise of 122 million (source 4). Pew lists the religiously unaffiliated as a separate group, at 1.9 billion (source 4). On Pew's count, that makes Christianity the largest religion in the world.

The ranking depends on how a source groups people. Pew reports Christians as one group, and this page does not regroup them. A census asks people what they describe themselves as, which may differ from belonging or practice.

What country has the most Muslims?

By our arithmetic from Pew Research's estimates for 2020, published on 9 June 2025, Indonesia has the most Muslims: Pew gives it 274,810,000 people, 87.0% of them Muslim, about 239 million. Pakistan is second at about 227 million and India third at about 213 million (source 6). This is a short list of ten from Pew's table of 201 countries and territories, not the whole table.

Pew's table prints each country's population and Muslim share, not a headcount (source 6). The last column is our arithmetic, population times share, rounded to the nearest million, and so is the order. We read every country row. Every other country has fewer than Algeria's 43.3 million on this arithmetic. The nearest are Ethiopia (118,920,000 people, 36.2% Muslim, about 43.0 million), Iraq (about 41.9 million) and Afghanistan (about 39.0 million).

These are estimates, not a census of every country. Pew relies on how people describe their own religious identity and builds its estimates from censuses and surveys. It says that in most countries it cannot count precisely how many people identify with each religion (source 8). Iran's estimate rests on its national census, and Pew notes surveys that paint a different picture there. Egypt's is projected from its 2006 census because later results were not published (source 8).

How many Muslims in Russia, Germany and Greece?

Pew's 2020 rows, with the last column again our arithmetic (source 6).

Which religion is growing fastest?

Pew says Muslims were the fastest-growing religious group between 2010 and 2020 (source 4). Their share rose by 1.8 percentage points, and their number rose by 347 million. This page does not compare growth rates across groups.

What does each figure count?

• Census figures count the answers people give to a question on religion. The question was voluntary in England and Wales and in Scotland (source 1, source 2).
• Pew's estimates combine census and survey data. COVID-19 delayed some census and survey data, so some 2020 figures use data released in 2024 (source 4).
• Revisions: Pew's 2010 estimates differ from what it published before, mainly because of how it now measures China's religious population (source 4).

All the figures at a glance