Interesting fact that is often overlooked: when talking about Muslim countries, many immediately think of the Middle East. But in reality, the center of gravity of the Muslim world is located somewhere else.

Most of the largest Muslim communities are concentrated in South and Southeast Asia. And these are not just a few percent of the population — they are huge absolute numbers. Indonesia alone has 242 million Muslims. For comparison: that’s more than the combined population of Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

This is what the real picture looks like. At the top of the list are Asian Muslim countries: Indonesia (242M, 87%), Pakistan (235M, 96%), Bangladesh (150M, 91%). Then comes India with 213 million Muslims, although they are a minority there (15%). Looking further, Nigeria (124M), Egypt (104M), Iran (88M), and Turkey (84M) also rank high.

In Muslim countries in Africa, there are also quite a few believers: Sudan (46M), Algeria (43M), Ethiopia (37M), Morocco (37M). But even combined, they do not reach Indonesia.

What truly surprises: if you only take the top 5 Muslim countries by population, four of them are in Asia. This completely overturns the usual perception of the geography of Islam. Data from Pew Research Center (2025) shows exactly this picture — the Asian center of the Muslim world is much larger than it appears at first glance.