Because the terms 'Muslim world' and 'Islamic world' are disputed, since no country is homogeneously Muslim, and there is no way to determine at what point a Muslim minority in a country is to be considered 'significant' enough, there is no consensus on how to define the Muslim world geographically.
[116][117][6] The only rule of thumb for inclusion which has some support, is that countries need to have a Muslim population of more than 50%.
[116][6] Jones (2005) defines a "large minority" as being between 30% and 50%, which described nine countries in 2000, namely
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Eritrea,
Ethiopia,
Guinea-Bissau,
Ivory Coast,
Kazakhstan,
Nigeria,
North Macedonia, and
Tanzania.
[6]
According to the
Pew Research Center in 2015 there were 50
Muslim-majority countries.
[118][119] Worldatlas.com (April 2017) identified 45 'Islamic countries'. Among the Islamic states are: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Oman, and Yemen. Other states where Islam is the politically defined state religion are: Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Somalia and Brunei. Other Muslim-majority countries include: Niger, Indonesia, Sudan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Djibouti, Albania, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Northern Cyprus, Nigeria, Senegal, Syria, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
[120] According to a 2010 study and released January 2011,
[121][122] Islam had 1.5 billion adherents, making up c. 22% of the world population.
[123][124][125]