Washington, USA - A new study shows the world's Muslim population will increase by nearly a billion people by 2030.
According to the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life, the Muslim population will increase globally by 35 percent in the next 20 years, doubling the number of Muslims worldwide since the start of the century, and twice the global growth rate of non-Muslims.
If the trend holds up, Muslims will make up over 26 percent of the world's total projected population of 8.3 billion in two decades.
The study shows that 60 percent of the world's Muslims will live in the Asia-Pacific region by 2030 and 20 percent will live in the Middle East.
The U.S. Muslim population is expected to grow from 0.8 percent to 1.7 percent in 2030, "making Muslims roughly as numerous as Jews or Episcopalians are in the United States today."