You know, few people realize where the majority of the world's Muslims actually live. When people talk about Islam, they picture the Middle East, but that's far from the full picture.

Here are the top countries by Muslim population, and it's quite interesting:

Indonesia leads by a huge margin — 242 million believers. It is the largest Muslim country in the world, and it alone has more Muslims than all Arab countries combined. Next is Pakistan with 235 million (96% of the population), India with 213 million (though that's only 15% of their total population), Bangladesh with 150 million.

Following are Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Sudan, Algeria. Significant Muslim communities are also found in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Morocco, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Tanzania, Malaysia, Syria, Mali, China, Niger, and Somalia.

The largest Muslim country in the world — Indonesia — is an archipelago in Southeast Asia, not Saudi Arabia or any other Middle Eastern country. This shows how often we misunderstand the geography of religion.

Data from Pew Research Center 2025. An interesting statistic for understanding global demographics.