The Muslim world and human development: An introduction

The world, with 6.90 billion people (in early 2011), has about 1.57 billion Muslims. Around 500 million of this live as religious minority with more than ten million each in India (160 million), Ethiopia (38 million), Russia (26 million), Tanzania (16 million), and China (26-130 million). In addition, there are at least nine countries with 4-10 million Muslims in each, for example, USA (at least 7 million), Ivory Coast (7.7 million), Thailand (6 million), Ghana (5 million), Mozambique (5.2 million), Zaire (5 million), Philippines (4.7 million), Uganda (4 million), and France (4 million). There are also 15 countries such as Ghana (3.8 million), Germany (2.8 million), Benin (2.1 million), Kenya (2.7 million), Malawi (2 million), Kosovo (2 million), Sri Lanka (1.7 million), UK (1.6 million), Bosnia (1.5 million), Nepal (1.2 million), Israel (1.1 million), Netherlands (1 million), Argentina (1 million), Bulgaria (1 million), and Spain (1 million) where 1-4 million Muslims in each form a significant minority religious group (Pew Research Center 2009).