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Office of International Information Programs
U.S. Department of State



Demographic Facts
 
(Chart based on information from the Hartford Institute for Religious Research)
 
  • Mosques in the United States: 1,209
  • American Muslims associated with a mosque: 2 million
  • Increase in number of mosques since 1994: 25 percent
  • Proportion of mosques founded since 1980: 62 percent
  • Average number of Muslims associated with each mosque in the United States: 1,625
  • U.S. mosque participants who are converts: 30 percent
  • American Muslims who "strongly agree" that they should participate in American institutions and the political process: 70 percent
  • U.S. mosques attended by a single ethnic group: 7 percent
  • U.S. mosques that have some Asian, African-American, and Arab members: nearly 90 percent
  • Ethnic origins of regular participants in U.S. mosques:

  •     South Asian (Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Afghani) = 33 percent
        African-America = 30 percent
        Arab = 25 percent
        Sub-Saharan African = 3.4 percent
        European (Bosnian, Tartar, Kosovar, etc.) = 2.1 percent
        White American = 1.6 percent
        Southeast Asian ( Malaysian, Indonesian, Filipino) = 1.3 percent
        Caribbean = 1.2 percent
        Turkish = 1.1 percent
        Iranian = 0.7 percent
        Hispanic/Latino = 0.6 percent

  • U.S. mosques that feel they strictly follow the Koran and Sunnah: more than 90 percent
  • U.S. mosques that feel the Koran should be interpreted with consideration of its purposes and modern circumstances: 71 percent
  • U.S. mosques that provide some assistance to the needy: nearly 70 percent
  • U.S. mosques with a full-time school: more than 20 percent
 
The information above was drawn from the "Mosque in America: A National Portrait," a survey released in April 2001. It is part of larger study of American congregations called "Faith Communities Today," coordinated by Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religious Research in Connecticut. Muslim organizations cosponsoring the survey are the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, the Ministry of Imam W. Deen Muhammed, and the Islamic Circle of North America.
Charts throughout this publication are from the same study.

Photos: Patterns of Prayer »