For Immediate Release
January 25, 2011

Washington, D.C. — In a 10 a.m. EST conference call for journalists on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life will discuss the findings contained in its new report, The Future of the Global Muslim Population.  This comprehensive demographic study seeks to provide up-to-date estimates of the number of Muslims around the world in 2010 and to project the growth of the Muslim population from 2010 to 2030. Where possible, the report also illustrates trends by providing data from 1990 and 2000.

Population projections for each of the world’s 232 countries and territories included in this report are based on four main factors: births (fertility rates), deaths (mortality rates), migration (emigration and immigration) and the age structure of the population (the number of people in various age groups). Related factors — which are not direct inputs into the projections but which underlie vital assumptions about the way Muslim fertility rates are changing and Muslim populations are shifting — include education, economic well-being, contraception and family planning, urbanization and religious switching (conversion).

The Future of the Global Muslim Population is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, an effort funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation to analyze religious change and its impact on societies around the world.

Telephone News Conference

WHO:
Luis Lugo, Director, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Alan Cooperman, Associate Director for Research, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Brian J. Grim, Senior Researcher and Director of Cross-National Data, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

WHEN:
Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011, 10 a.m. EST

RSVP INSTRUCTIONS:
Please send your full name, title, the name of your publication or organization, where you are based and your contact information to Liga Plaveniece at lplaveniece@pewforum.org to reserve your place.

The online presentation of The Future of the Global Muslim Population, which includes an executive summary and interactive global map, will be made available to the public at pewforum.org at 12:01 a.m. EST on Jan. 27.

The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life conducts surveys, demographic analyses and other social science research on important aspects of religion and public life in the U.S. and around the world. As part of the Washington-based Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy organization, the Pew Forum does not take positions on any of the issues it covers or on policy debates.