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The following table analyzes the demographics of Islam as of mid-year 2005.

The exact percentage of the world's Muslim population that adheres to the various Shi'a sects, as opposed to the majority Sunni group, is indeterminate. No Sunni-Shi'a breakdown is available for many countries. The CIA World Factbook gives a Sunni-Shi'a breakdown only for countries where Shi'a are a significant minority. When no breakdown is given, all the country's Muslims have been enrolled, provisionally, in the Sunni column. This is certain to have exaggerated the proportion of Sunni Muslims. Much further work will be required before the Sunni-Shi'a statistics given here can be considered reliable. At present, the figures indicate 88.7% Sunni and 11.13% Shi'a.

No columns have been provided for the Ibadi branch of Islam. Ibadis are found primarily in Oman, where they constitute some 80% of the Muslim population. (Total population is approximately 3,001,583, Muslim population is 2,851,504, Sunni population is 556,676, Shi'a population is 43,741, and the Ibadi population is 2,251,187 -- all figures being approximate.)

There is a considerable discrepancy between the Muslim total derived from adding up the figures for the various countries (1,363,000,000) and the Muslim total given by the CIA World Factbook (1,283,000,000). The CIA estimates that Muslims constitute some 19.9% of the world population. If the larger figure is used, the percentage would be 21.1%. The discrepancy may be due to rounding errors, since in many cases the Muslim population was calculated from the general population multiplied by the Muslim percentage. Replacing the CIA figures with figures from national censuses, if available, could reduce this discrepancy.

Note on percentages

The percentage following the number of Muslims in the general population is the percentage of Muslims in the general population. However, the percentages following the Sunni and Shi'a numbers are percentages of the MUSLIM population, not the general population. This was done so as to better see the Sunni-Shi'a balance (if it can be said to be seen when the figures are both controversial and sketchy).

The percentage is applied to mid-year 2005 population estimate for the country as per CIA website. Although CIA site appears to update mid-year population estimates on the basis of estimated annual growth rate for the country, it does not seem to update percentage figures and uses last available estimate or census for such percentage.

For example, percent of total population that is Muslim in India has grown by 0.84 percent points during 1991-2001 from 12.60% (12.20% per 1991 Census figure adujsted for areas missed in 1991 Census) to 13.43% in 2001 census. Such trend projects a 13.80% Muslim percentage for India in mid-year 2005. Because of such reasonable estimate for mid-2005 is reasonable to make in case of India, it has been used.

Sources used

The majority of the figures have been taken from, or calculated from, the CIA World Factbook and the website Adherents.com . When these sources fail to provide any numerical information, other sources have been used as specified below:

• : Imam Reza Network estimates link
• : Imam Reza Network estimates link
• : Encyclopedia Britannica 1997 edition
• : Registered religious communities in Finland (2003)

The reliabilty of the following data is not confirmed and may be disputed and/or incorrect

See also

Islam by country