Monday, December 18, 2006

Amateur Research on World Muslim Demographics

According to the CIA World Factbook data for 2006:
Estimated world human population = 6,553,628,950. In 2006, the United Nations estimated that the world's population is growing at the rate of 1.14% (or about 75 million people) per year. According to data from the CIA's 2005-2006 World Factbooks, the world human population currently increases by 203,800 every day.
Estimated world Muslim population = 1,461,813,559 (that is approx 22%) *I thought there were more Muslims in the world today than any other religion - there are actually more Christians (33% of the world). Just 2.5% of the world are atheists. The US population surpassed 300,000,000 in late 2006. Less than 2% of Americans are Muslims.
Current estimates on violent (Jihadist) Muslims worldwide posted by conservative media outlets whom I think are least likely to understate the number (National Review, Weekly Standard, NY Post), are 1%-2% of the total world Muslim population - that would be approx 29,236,270 people if you use 2%, (roughly equal to the population of Texas). Of course the percentage of Jihadists vs Moderate is highest in a relatively small number of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and the Indonesian archipelago. Those are the best estimates I could find on the people actually willing to wage jihad. The numbers on the Muslim population who claim to support the jihadist cause however are much higher - anywhere between 50%-75% in most of the Middle Eastern Countries - highest in Saudi Arabia (94%!). That's some effective religious brainwashing.

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