Canada counted: 1,775,715 people (4.9% of the population) reported a Muslim religious affiliation in the 2021 census, per Statistics Canada. The United States only estimates: Pew put it at about 3.45 million Muslims of all ages (1.1%) in 2017, and found 1.2% of surveyed adults identifying as Muslim in its 2023-2024 study. Every figure below keeps its instrument and date attached, plus the demographic fact that matters more than any count: no ethnic group is the majority.
Every figure below keeps its source's own reference year (Pew Research, Statistics Canada, the US Religion Census, and ISPU) because a 2017 estimate quoted as a 2026 count is how most misinformation on this topic starts.
Canada's census asks about religion: in 2021, 1,775,715 people (4.9% of the population) reported a Muslim religious affiliation, per Statistics Canada. The US Census Bureau, by law, 'does not collect information about religious affiliation,' so every American figure you'll ever see is a survey estimate or an organizational count. That single methodological fact explains most of the confusion this page untangles.
Pew Research's benchmark estimate: about 3.45 million Muslims of all ages in 2017, roughly 1.1% of the population. Pew's newer 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study found 1.2% of surveyed adults identifying as Muslim: an adult share, not a replacement head-count. And the 2020 US Religion Census counted 2,771 mosque organizations with about 4.45 million associated adherents, an institutional footprint measured differently again. Three real numbers, three different instruments; anyone quoting 'the' number without a date is rounding history into news.
Pew's standing finding: 'No racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of Muslim American adults.' Its 2023-2024 survey put the mix at roughly 30% White, 30% Asian, 20% Black, 11% Hispanic, and 8% other or multiple. A separate note on categories: in its 2017 analysis, Pew said nearly nine-in-ten immigrants from the Middle East, North Africa region were counted as White under census-style categories. ISPU's 2025 poll, which offers 'Arab' as its own category, found 28% Black, 24% Asian, 20% White, 12% Arab, 9% Hispanic. American Islam has no ethnic default, which is why the mosque parking lot looks like the whole city.
The dated numbers themselves make the point: Pew's 2017 survey put Black Muslims at 20% of Muslim American adults, its 2023-2024 study again found about 20%, and ISPU's 2025 poll (with its different race question) found 28%. As ISPU's Dalia Mogahed put it, 'The Muslim American community actually looks like what the nation will be in 25-50 years: No majority race, diverse in its priorities, young.'
Pew's 2015 projection had US Muslims reaching about 2.1% of the population by 2050; Statistics Canada's 2017 scenarios projected 5.6-7.2% of Canadians by 2036. And the actual 2021 census (4.9%) was already running slightly ahead of that model. Projections are scenarios, not destinies; this page will carry the new numbers when the agencies publish them, each with its date.
In Pew's 2017 U.S. survey, 89% of Muslim Americans said they were proud to be both Muslim and American: not competing labels, a compound one. If you came to this page for a single takeaway, that's a better one than any population figure.
There is no official census figure, US law bars the Census Bureau from requiring religious affiliation. Pew Research estimated about 3.45 million Muslims of all ages (1.1% of the population) in 2017, its 2023-2024 survey found 1.2% of adults identifying as Muslim, and the 2020 US Religion Census counted about 4.45 million mosque-associated adherents. Each number measures something different, on its own date.
1,775,715 people, 4.9% of the population, reported a Muslim religious affiliation in Canada's 2021 census, per Statistics Canada. Unlike the US, Canada's census asks about religion, so this is an actual count as of 2021 rather than a survey estimate.
The Census Bureau states that US law prohibits it from requiring anyone to disclose religious affiliation, and the decennial census collects no religion data at all. All American figures therefore come from surveys (like Pew's) or organizational counts (like the US Religion Census's mosque-adherent tallies), which measure different things and shouldn't be swapped interchangeably.
None, Pew's standing finding is that no racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of Muslim American adults. Pew's 2023-2024 survey put the mix at roughly 30% White, 30% Asian, 20% Black, 11% Hispanic, and 8% other or multiple; Pew has historically counted many Arab and Iranian respondents as White under census-style categories. Educational estimates published in 2017 and 2019 place the Arab share of Muslims worldwide around 15-20%, and the US community is even more mixed.
The 2020 US Religion Census counted 2,771 mosque organizations, defined as organizations holding Friday prayer and controlling their space, while ISPU's parallel 2020 survey identified 2,769. Qadir's own directory verifies mosques individually across the US and Canada, with prayer times and contacts sourced from each mosque itself.
Both countries' trend data point up: Pew's 2015 projection had US Muslims reaching about 2.1% of the population by 2050, and Canada's 2021 census share of 4.9% was already slightly above Statistics Canada's earlier scenario range for that year. These are projections and dated counts, not live figures, this page carries each number with its source date.