Muslims to become US second largest religious group by the year 2040, says new research

By 2050 the total number is projected to reach 8.1 million.

Muslims are expected to become America’s second largest religious group by the year 2040, a new estimates has suggested.

The Pew Research Center said there are currently 3.45 million Muslims in the US, which is approximately 1.1 per cent of the US population.

But the think tank said that in the next 22 years, Muslims will replace Jews as the nation’s second-largest religious group.

By 2050 the total number of Muslims is projected to reach 8.1 million.

Ihsan Bagby, an associate professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky and member of the advisory board for Pews’ 2017 survey, said that the US would have to come to terms with the fact that Islam is becoming an important part of the nation’s makeup.

“I think a large number of Americans have come to accept that, but others have not,” Mr Bagby told NBC News. “And we’re in this transition period where Islam is, to a large percentage of Americans, not really considered part of American society.”

As problems in parts of Muslim world continue, he added that people were more likely to try and immigrate to the US.

“There’s a steady immigration of simply people seeking to better their economic and educational status, but there are also waves of people that are fleeing an area,” he said.

“The more distress in the Muslim world, the greater the motivation to immigrate.”

The Independent