{"id":18709,"date":"2018-01-03T13:57:53","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T18:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/new-estimates-show-u-s-muslim-population-continues-to-grow\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:43:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:43:58","slug":"new-estimates-show-u-s-muslim-population-continues-to-grow","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2018\/01\/03\/new-estimates-show-u-s-muslim-population-continues-to-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"New estimates show U.S. Muslim population continues to grow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Very<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Muslims<\/a>
Muslims at a 2017 prayer service celebrating Eid al-Fitr, a holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. (John Moore\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n

Recent political debates over Muslim immigration and related issues have prompted many people to ask how many Muslims actually live in the United States. But coming up with an answer is not easy, in part because the U.S. Census Bureau does not ask questions about religion, meaning there is no official government count of the U.S. Muslim population.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Still, based on our own survey and demographic research, as well as outside sources, Pew Research Center estimates that there were\u00a0about 3.45 million Muslims of all ages living in the U.S. in 2017, and that Muslims made\u00a0up about 1.1% of the total U.S. population.<\/p>\n\n

Muslims in the U.S. are not <\/em>as numerous as the number of Americans who identify as Jewish by religion<\/a>, according to our estimate. At the same time, our projections suggest that the U.S. Muslim population will grow much faster than the country\u2019s Jewish population. By 2040, Muslims will replace Jews as the nation\u2019s second-largest religious group after Christians. And by 2050, the U.S. Muslim population is projected to reach\u00a08.1 million<\/a>, or 2.1% of the nation\u2019s total population \u2014 nearly twice the share of today.<\/p>\n\n

The latest estimate combines information\u00a0from our 2017 survey\u00a0<\/em>of U.S. Muslims<\/a> \u2014 which reported on the prevalence<\/a> of Muslims among immigrants and other demographic groups \u2014 \u00a0with\u00a0official Census Bureau data on the number of people in these groups.<\/p>\n\n

[callout align=”alignright”]<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Try our email course on Muslims and Islam<\/h4>\n\n

Learn about Muslims and Islam through four short lessons delivered to your inbox every other day.\nSign up now!<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Muslims are not evenly distributed around the country. Some metro areas, such as Washington, D.C.,<\/a> have sizable Muslim communities. Likewise, certain states, such as\u00a0New Jersey<\/a>, are home to two or three times as many Muslim adults per capita as the national average. But there are also states and counties with far fewer Muslims.<\/p>\n\n

Since our first estimate of the size of the Muslim American population, the number of U.S. Muslims has been growing rapidly, albeit from a relatively low base. When we first conducted a study of Muslim Americans in 2007, we estimated that there were 2.35 million Muslims of all ages (including 1.5 million adults) in the U.S. By 2011, the number of Muslims had grown to 2.75 million (including 1.8 million adults). Since then, the Muslim population has continued to grow at a rate of roughly 100,000 per year, driven both by higher fertility rates among Muslim Americans as well as the continued migration of Muslims to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n

Religious conversions haven\u2019t had a large impact on the size of the U.S. Muslim population, largely because about as many Americans convert to Islam as leave the faith. Indeed, while about\u00a0one-in-five<\/a>\u00a0American Muslim adults were raised in a different faith tradition and converted to Islam, a similar share of Americans who were raised Muslim now\u00a0no longer identify with the faith<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An estimated 3.45 million Muslims of all ages were living in the United States in 2017, accounting for about 1.1% of the country’s total population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[189,190,174,405,432],"bylines":[922],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-18709","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-islam","category-muslim-americans","category-religious-demographics","category-size-demographic-characteristics-of-religious-groups","category-us-religious-demographics","bylines-besheer-mohamed","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":502,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2018\/01\/03\/new-estimates-show-u-s-muslim-population-continues-to-grow\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":29108,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":29108,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":29108,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":29108,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":29108,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":29108,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/01\/FT_18.01.04_muslimPopulation_featured-jpg.webp?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"A new estimate of U.S. Muslim population","description":"An estimated 3.45 million Muslims of all ages were living in the United States in 2017, accounting for about 1.1% of the country's total population.","og_title":"New estimates show U.S. Muslim population continues to grow","og_description":"An estimated 3.45 million Muslims of all ages were living in the United States in 2017, accounting for about 1.1% of the country's total population.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":29108,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"63be1f0d-6b12-4307-bcd5-69b9fbc0f470","termId":922}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/18709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18709"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/18709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106812,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/18709\/revisions\/106812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=18709"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=18709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}