According to CIA World Factbook, 87% of Syrians are Muslim, the majority being Sunni Muslims (74%). A further 13% are Shi'a Muslims, following the
The Sunni Muslims make up the vast majority in the country. The Alawites are the minority group (10% of the country's population), followed by Shia Ismailis. Christians are the main non-Muslim group in the country, they comprise 10% of the population . The Sunnis are mainly of the Hanafi and Shafi'i madhhabs.
There are different estimations regarding the ethnic and religious composition of the Syrian society; however, all sources observe that Sunnis constitute the majority of Syria's population (around 65 % - 75 %) [Targeting, 10.1]. Sunni Muslims reside throughout the country.
Denominations. Islam is divided into two major denominations, Sunni and Shi'a. Of the total Muslim population, 87–90% are Sunni and 10–13% are Shi'a. Most Shi'as (between 68% and 80%) live in mainly four countries: Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and Iraq.
Population. Religion in Yemen consists primarily of two principal Islamic religious groups: 65% of the Muslim population is Sunni Muslim and around 35% is Zaydi Shia, according to the UNHCR.
Shia Islam
The Lebanese Shia Muslims are around 27%–29% of the total population. Twelvers are the predominant Shia group, followed by Alawites and Ismailis. The Speaker of Parliament is always a Shi'a Muslim, as it is the only high post that Shi'as are eligible for.
More than 99 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim, and less than 0.1 percent of the population is Shia Muslim.
Iran has 66 million to 70 million Shias, or 37-40% of the world's total Shia population.
In a poll conducted by Sabancı University in 2006, 98.3% of Turks revealed they were Muslim. Most Muslims in Turkey are Sunni Muslims forming about 90%, and Shia-Aleviler (Alevis, Ja'faris and Alawites) denominations in total form up to 10% of the Muslim population.
The annual rates of growth for the world's Sunni and Shia populations were identical from 1990 to 2000. But the rate of growth of the Shia population is expected to be slightly lower than the rate of growth for Sunnis over the next 20 years.
The majority are Sunni (85-90%) while Shias make up between 10% and 15%. However, the Hanbali school is gaining popularity recently due to Wahhabi influence from the Middle East. Smaller minority Muslim populations in Pakistan include Quranists, nondenominational Muslims.
Most experts and media sources estimate approximately 90 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim and 10 percent is Christian. Scholars and NGOs estimate Shia Muslims comprise approximately 1 percent of the population. There are also small numbers of Dawoodi Bohra Muslims and Ahmadi Muslims.
Syrian Kurds are part of a regional transnational Kurdish population located in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, 160,000 of which are located in Syria. The Kurdish population is predominantly Sunni Muslim with a Yezidi minority.
According to the federal Ministry of Religious Affairs, more than 99 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim. Members of other religious groups combined constitute less than 1 percent of the population and include a small Christian community, a small Sufi Muslim community, and an unknown number of Shia Muslims.
Shias comprise a majority in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain, and a plurality in Lebanon, while Sunnis make up the majority of more than forty countries from Morocco to Indonesia.
Islam is historically divided into two major sects, Sunni and Shia Islam, each with its own sub-sects. Large numbers of Shia Arab Muslims live in some Arab countries including Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, and Qatar. Shia Muslims are a numerical majority in Iraq and Bahrain.
Qatar is an Islamic state with multi-religious minorities like most of the Persian Gulf countries with waves of migration over the last 30 years. The official state religion is Sunni Islam. The community is made up of Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and small groups of Buddhists and Baha'is.
Islam is the official state religion of Afghanistan, with approximately 99.7% of the Afghan population being Muslim. Roughly 90% practice Sunni Islam, while around 10% are Shias. Most Shias belong to the Twelver branch and only a smaller number follow Ismailism.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a majority Muslim country with 96% of the population following Sunni Islam while a small minority follow Shiite branches.
Pew Research Center estimated the number of Shias in Pakistan and India to be 10 – 15 percent of the total Muslim population, while for Bangladesh it was estimated to be less than 1% to 2% of the total population.
Since 1979, due to Iran's influence, some Palestinian Sunnis have converted to Shia Islam.
Shia Islam in Bahrain is estimated to be approximately 49% of the Muslim population in Bahrain. This number is disputed, with the Sunni royal family placing it closer to half, some surveys estimating it to be 62%, and most sources placing the estimate somewhere near 70% of the Muslim population.
While almost all of Egypt's Muslims are Sunni, there are a small number of Shia. (Estimates of their number range from 800,000 to "at most" three million.) The Syrian civil war has brought on an increase in anti-Shia rhetoric by Sunnis, harassment and arrest, and in at least one case bloodshed.
Christians reside throughout the country, although the percentage of Christians is higher in Upper Egypt and in some sections of Cairo and Alexandria, according to religious and civil society groups. Scholars estimate that Shia Muslims comprise approximately 1 percent of the population.
96% of United Arab Emirates population are muslims, of them are 94% are Sunni Muslims and the remainder 2% are Shia, while the other 4% of the population are of other religions who are concentrated in the Emirates of Dubai and Sharjah.