About 80 million international migrants are Muslims, representing 29% of all migrants worldwide. This percentage is barely higher than the share of Muslims on this planet population in 2020 (25%).
The Middle East and North Africa region is home to the most important variety of Muslim migrants (40%), followed by the Asia-Pacific region (24%). Two in ten Muslim migrants live in Europe and one in ten in sub-Saharan Africa. Only 6% live in North America, and even fewer live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Muslim migrants generally leave their countries in quest of safety and higher economic conditions. Syria has turn into the most important source of Muslim migrants for the reason that war began in 2011, with 8.1 million Muslim migrants, or 10% of the world’s Muslim migrants, moving mainly to Turkey and Lebanon, in addition to Europe and the United States.
India is the second largest source of migrants, with 6 million Muslim immigrants mainly going to wealthy Muslim countries resembling the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Afghanistan ranks third (5.5 million), with most migrants staying in Iran and Pakistan, often fleeing protracted conflicts, from the Soviet invasion to the American invasion.
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The Muslim immigrant population increased from 40 million in 1990 to 80 million in 2020, a rise of 102%, which is higher than the general migration growth rate of 83%. The largest increases were recorded by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, with a further 16.8 million Muslim migrants by 2020 (a rise of 278%), driven by economic growth in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and increased migration from Syria to Turkey.
Meanwhile, the variety of Muslim migrants in Pakistan fell from 4.1 million to 2.1 million (a 50% decline), and the foreign-born Muslim population in Iran fell from 4.3 million to 2.8 million (a 35% decline). partly attributable to the return of Afghan migrants. Syria has experienced the most important increase within the variety of Muslim migrants, from 570,000 in 1990 to eight.1 million in 2020 (a rise of 1,300%).
India and Pakistan also recorded significant increases: the variety of Muslim migrants from India increased from 2.1 million to six million (a rise of 192%), and from Pakistan from 1.8 million to five.3 million (a rise of 202%), and plenty of of them emigrated to the Persian Gulf.
In contrast, the variety of Muslim migrants from Afghanistan fell from 7.4 million in 1990 to five.5 million in 2020 (a 26% decline), reflecting returns to Afghanistan and a smaller generation that left the country after the Soviet occupation.
Source: PEW Research Center
