Religious Demography. The U.S. government estimates the total population at 11.9 million (midyear 2022), of which approximately 99 percent are Sunni Muslim. Christians, Jews, Shia Muslims, Baha'is, and nonbelievers constitute less than 1 percent of the population.
Islam is the official state religion in Tunisia. According to CIA, 99.1% of its adherents are Sunni Muslims. The constitution of Tunisia states that the country's “religion is Islam”, the government is the “guardian of religion”, and requires that the president be Muslim.
Twelver Shīʿas constitute the majority of the population in Iran (90%), Azerbaijan (85%), Bahrain (70%), Iraq (65%), and Lebanon (65% of Muslims).
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.
On the whole, Yemeni Shias make up "over one-quarter of Yemen's 25 million people". Zaydis are generally found in the north and northwest and Shafi'is in the south and southeast. There are also approximately 3,000 Christians and 400 Jews.
Iran has 66 million to 70 million Shias, or 37-40% of the world's total Shia population.
Of all Iranian Muslims, 90-95% are Shi'ites. Almost all Iranians as Muslim, with 90–95% thought to associate themselves with the official state religion – Shia Islam – and about 5–10% with the Sunni and Sufi branches of Islam.
The U.S. government estimates the total population at 36.7 million (midyear 2022). More than 99 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim, and less than 0.1 percent of the population is Shia Muslim. Groups together constituting less than 1 percent of the population include Christians, Jews, and Baha'is.
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.
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.
Muslims in Germany belong to several different branches of Islam (approximate data): Sunnis 2,640,000. Alevis 500,000. Twelvers Shi'as 225,500.
Since 1979, due to Iran's influence, some Palestinian Sunnis have converted to Shia Islam.
According to the most recent census, conducted in 2011, Sunni Muslims constitute nearly 57 percent of the population, Roman Catholics 10 percent, members of the AOC 7 percent, and members of the Bektashi Order (a form of Shia Sufism) 2 percent.
Besides the ethnic Albanians, and the ruling Turks who settled in Kosovo, the Roma and some part of the Slavic-speaking population (later called the Bosniaks and/or Gorani, to distinguish them from the Orthodox Serbs) also became Muslims, by far most of them Sunni, many of which belong to Sufi brotherhoods, although ...
Sunni Islam, the larger of the two great branches of the faith, is the form practiced by the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Algeria, while there is a small Ibadi minority. There is no significant Shia presence. One of the dominant characteristics of Islam in North Africa was the cult of holy men, or maraboutism.
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.
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.
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 Alawite (11%), Ismaili (1%) or Twelver Imami (0.5%) sects.
Islam is practiced by 90% of Egyptians. Most Egyptian Muslims are Sunni and follow the Maliki school of jurisprudence, though all legal schools are represented. Shi'a Muslims make up a small minority.
Approximately 11 percent of the population are citizens, of whom more than 85 percent are Sunni Muslims, according to media reports. The vast majority of the remainder are Shia Muslims, who are concentrated in the Emirates of Dubai and Sharjah.
Demographics. The data on the religious affiliation of Iraq's population are uncertain. 95–99% of the population are Muslims. The CIA World Factbook reports a 2015 estimate according to which 29–34% are Sunni Muslims and 61-64% Shia Muslims.
The most prevalent form of Islam practiced in Turkey is Sunni Islam — another departure from neighboring countries where most people adhere to Shia Islam. Turkey is also known for its Sufi community, an Islamic mystic tradition associated with the city of Konya and the poet Rumi.
About 97% of Pakistanis are Muslims. Pakistan has the second largest number of Muslims in the world after Indonesia. 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.
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.