Population Reference Bureau: How Many Muslims Live in the United States?

1/10/2003

From: John Haaga of the Population Reference Bureau, 202-939-5414

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 -- The following was released today by the Population Reference Bureau:

How many Muslims live in the United States?

There is no official answer to this question, and there is a lot of variance among the unofficial answers. Numbers quoted in the popular press and even in reference sources range from 1 million to over 8 million, and in recent years there have been several public disputes in which organizations have accused each other of trying either to minimize or to exaggerate the number for political reasons.

After a careful review of the published literature, the Population Reference Bureau has found the lower range of estimates to be most plausible, and has published this estimate on its website (www.prb.org): "There were probably well over 1 million, but fewer than 3 million, residents of the United States in 2000 who identified themselves as Muslims."

The U.S. government does not collect information on the religious beliefs of U.S. citizens and other residents (neither through the census, nor in household surveys, nor on immigration forms) because of the longstanding belief that collecting this information would appear to many Americans to violate the provision in the Constitution that prohibits government establishment of religion or interference with religious freedom.

There are unofficial estimates, however, from privately conducted surveys. These surveys make use of two broad approaches: asking a random sample of the household population about their religious preferences, and asking leaders of religious congregations about their membership. Two of the most authoritative studies using these approaches are the General Social Survey, conducted every two years by the National Opinion Research Center; and a study done every 10 years by the Glenmary Research Institute in Nashville, Tenn., under the auspices of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. These independent studies put estimates in the 1-million to 2-million range, though both organizations list cautions about the inevitable imprecision of such estimates.

In the 2000 Census, over 1.2 million U.S. residents reported that they had been born in a predominantly Muslim country, but not all of these people are Muslims, since members of religious minorities are more likely to emigrate to Western countries.

For more information and references to the sources, go to www.prb.org for the article "How Many Muslims Live in the United States?"

------ The Population Reference Bureau is the leader in providing timely and objective information on U.S. and international population trends and their implications. PRB is a nonprofit population research organization in Washington, D.C.