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Today's Paper | June 16, 2024

Published 05 Sep, 2014 03:17pm

Did you know: Six countries home to 53% of all Muslims

A recent analysis of PEW survey data provides a visual look at how the world’s major religions are heavily concentrated in a few geographical areas, "with half or more of their followers living in one or a handful of countries."

Interesting findings:

  • Egypt is the only Middle Eastern-North African country that ranks among the six largest Muslim populations (Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Egypt).

  • The six countries with large Muslim populations comprise 30% of the world’s population.

  • No major religion is more concentrated in one country than Hinduism, which has remained close to its geographic origins.

  • India and China have the largest shares (a combined 63%) of the 58 million people in the “other religions” category

  • Christians and Muslims, the world’s two largest religious groups, have spread well beyond their origins in the Middle East.

  • Christians are the group whose distribution is most closely proportionate to the global population pattern.

  • While 81% of all Jews live in the United States and Israel

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