One in Four People Worldwide Are Muslim

Baptist Press reports that about one in four people worldwide is Muslim, according to a comprehensive demographic study by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The estimate is in line with previous data from other sources like the United Nations and the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency. The statistic should remindSouthern Baptists that the world is full of people who need to hear the Gospel, a spokesman for the International Mission board said. The study found that 1.57 billion, or 23 percent, of the world's estimated 6.8 billion people are Muslim. By comparison, the worldwide Christian population is estimated to be about 2.2 billion, or 1 in 3 people on the planet, according to the CIA Factbook. More than 60 percent of the global Muslim population lives in Asia while about 20 percent is in the Middle East and North Africa.