Estimates suggest 80-85 million Nigerians identify as Muslim (roughly 50% of the total population), of which the majority are probably Sunni (60 million), though this is not a unified identity and includes a wide variety of different viewpoints.
Nigeria is home to Africa's largest Muslim population.
Nigeria is a society with Islam, Christianity and earlier traditional African religions. According to recent estimates, 45.5% of the population is Christian. Islam is the largest religion with 50.5% comprising 95% Sunni Islam and 5% Shia Islam. 6% of the Nigerian population practices traditional African religion.
Christianity and Islam, introduced by western missionaries and Arab jihadists/scholars are the dominant faiths in Nigeria. It has been speculated that about 50 percent of the population are Muslims, and about 40 percent are Christians.
It is estimated that 50 percent of Nigerians are Muslim, 40 percent are Christian, and that the remaining 10 percent practice various indigenous religions.
Merchants from North Africa and the Senegalese basin introduced Islam to what is now Nigeria during the 11th century, and it was the first monotheistic Abrahamic religion to arrive in Nigeria.
Islam arrived in Nigeria in the 11th and 12th centuries through trade, migration, and through the travels of the scholar-mystic-wayfarer along trade routes, through the regions of Kanem and Bornu had been in contact with Muslim traders as early as the 9th century.
Nigeria has one of the largest Muslim populations in Africa. In Nigeria, about 52 percent of the population is Muslim, The Muslim population in Nigeria continues to grow.
Around 62% of the world's Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region (from Turkey to Indonesia), with over one billion adherents. As of June 2023, the largest Muslim population in a country is in Pakistan (240,760,000), followed by Indonesia (236,000,000), India (200,000,000), and Bangladesh (150,800,000).
The country with the largest number (about 209 million) is Indonesia, where 87.2% of the population identifies as Muslim. India has the world's second-largest Muslim population in raw numbers (roughly 176 million), though Muslims make up just 14.4% of India's total population.
Modern growth. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world. In 1990, 1.1 billion people were Muslims, while in 2010, 1.6 billion people were Muslims.
The Yoruba are one of the more religiously diverse ethnic groups in Africa. Many Yoruba people practice Christianity under various denominations while others are Muslims practicing mostly under Sunni Islam of the Maliki school of law.
Islam first entered Nigeria through Borno in the northeast in the 11th century. Its dissemination was essentially a peaceful process, mediated by Muslim clerics and traders, until the Fulani jihad of 1804, organized by Usman dan Fodio.
According to Arab oral tradition, Islam first came to Africa with Muslim refugees fleeing persecution in the Arab peninsula. This was followed by a military invasion, some seven years after the death of the prophet Mohammed in 639, under the command of the Muslim Arab General, Amr ibn al-Asi.
Muslims are a minority group in China, representing 1.6 to 2 percent of the total population (21-28 million people) according to various estimates. Though Hui Muslims are the most numerous group, the greatest concentration of Muslims are in Xinjiang, which contains a significant Uyghur population.
The majority of Africans are adherents of Christianity or Islam. African people often combine the practice of their traditional belief with the practice of Abrahamic religions. Abrahamic religions are widespread throughout Africa.
India. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in India. Growth rate of Muslims has been consistently higher than the growth rate of Hindus, ever since the census data of independent India has been available. For example, during the 1991–2001 decade, Muslim growth rate was 29.5% (vs 19.9% for Hindus).
Hindus by state or territory
Hinduism is one of the fastest growing religion in absolute numbers in every state and territory of Australia.
The main reasons for Islam's growth ultimately involve simple demographics. To begin with, Muslims have more children than members of the seven other major religious groups analyzed in the study.
Trade routes jumping from city to city across the Sahara desert brought Islam into central Africa and then into the southern part of the continent. The trade routes through the Nile Valley helped Islam spread from Sudan through Uganda.
Kenya has a Christian majority, with Islam being the second largest faith representing 10.9% of the Kenyan population, or approximately 5.2 million people as of 2019 census. The Kenyan coast is mostly populated by Muslims. Nairobi has several mosques and a notable Muslim population.
Christianity came to Nigeria in the 15th century through Augustinian and Capuchin monks from Portugal. The first mission of the Church of England was, though, only established in 1842 in Badagry by Henry Townsend.