Islam is a global religion, but most Muslims today live in a broad belt from West Africa across the Middle East and South Asia to Southeast Asia.

Main regions where Islam is concentrated

  • South Asia (about one‑third of the world’s Muslims): Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh together have the largest regional concentration of Muslims.
  • Southeast Asia : Indonesia alone has the single largest Muslim population of any country (around 13% of the world’s Muslims), with significant populations in Malaysia and Brunei as well.
  • Middle East and North Africa : Islam is the dominant religion in almost every country in this region, which hosts roughly about one‑fifth to one‑quarter of the world’s Muslims.
  • Sub‑Saharan Africa : Large Muslim populations in countries like Nigeria and across the Sahel and East Africa.
  • Central Asia and the Caucasus : Muslims form large majorities in places like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other Central Asian states, and significant shares in the Caucasus.
  • Minorities worldwide : There are sizeable Muslim communities in Europe, Russia, China, and the Americas, even where they are not the majority religion.

So if you think of a world map, Islam is mainly located in a wide zone stretching from North and West Africa through the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, Central and South Asia, down into Indonesia and surrounding Southeast Asian countries, with important minority communities spread across the rest of the world.