By 2050, the American Muslim population is projected to reach 8.1 million people, or 2.1% of the total population. Indeed, even before 2040, Muslims are projected to become the second-largest religious group in the U.S., after Christians. Muslim population will grow faster than the Hindu population and much faster than the Jewish population in the coming decades. In addition, our projections suggest the U.S. Since our first estimate of the size of the Muslim American population in 2007, we have seen a steady growth in both the number of Muslims in the U.S. Census Bureau does not ask questions about religion, meaning that there is no official government count of the U.S. But coming up with an answer is not easy, in part because the U.S. over Muslim immigration and related issues have prompted many to ask how many Muslims actually live in the United States. And even at the state level Muslims are not evenly distributed: Certain states, such as New Jersey, have two or three times as many Muslim adults per capita as the national average. In some cities Muslims comprise significantly more than 1% of the community. than there are Jews by religion (5.7 million) but more than there are Hindus (2.1 million) and many more than there are Sikhs. The projection uses data on age, fertility, mortality, migration and religious switching drawn from multiple sources, including the 2011 survey of Muslim Americans.Īccording to our current estimate, there are fewer Muslims of all ages in the U.S. Our new estimate of Muslims and other faiths is based on a demographic projection that models growth in the American Muslim population since our 2011 estimate and includes both adults and children. population ( about 322 million people in 2015), and we estimate that that share will double by 2050. This means that Muslims made up about 1% of the total U.S. Pew Research Center estimates that there were about 3.3 million Muslims of all ages living in the United States in 2015. Note: An updated version of this post was published on Jan.