A new pan-Islamic survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center (cited in this week’s The Economist) provides a image of the Muslim world that while not a surprise for me and maybe you, will be for many Westerns, particularly Americans.

Many Americans equate all Muslims with the Arab world and all Arabs with Islam. In actuality, most Muslims are not Arabs and the Arab world is home to millions of Christians.

The said survey estimates that the global Islamic population (or Umma) is 1.57 billion, or 23% of the inhabitants on a 6.8 billion-person Earth.

Qolsharif Mosque in Russia, one of the largest in Europe.

The region with the most Muslims is not Arabia, the place of birth of Islam and home to its two holiest sites; but Asia. 61.9% of Muslims live in Asia. The three nations with the most Muslims are Asian: Indonesia (203m), Pakistan (174m), and India (160m).

The Middle East and North Africa is second. 20.1% of Muslims live in the region, with Egypt (82m, of whom 6m are Christian Copts) being the most populated and a key focal point in the world of Islam both for Arab and non-Arab Muslims. The country is home to the most authoritative body in Sunni Islam: al-Azhar University in Cairo and also gave birth to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood which now has offshoots in several Muslim nations.

Islam is also growing in Europe. The continent, which has a rich Islamic history in Andalusia, is home to 2.4% of Muslims worldwide (though such figures may be under-reporting since secular law prohibits religious questioning in the West). In any case, it is clear that Europe is home to several Muslims. Of Western Europeans nations, France has the largest population with 3.6m. Contrary to popular belief, most European Muslims are not immigrants from North Africa, south-west Asia, or Turkey. They are natives to the region. Russian Muslims, an example of such natives, are the largest bloc of European Muslims accounting for 12% of the nation’s population with 16.5m believers. Albania is a Muslim-majority nation, Bosnia has a Muslim plurality, Macedonia is a third Muslim, and last year Europe welcomed the new Muslim-majority republic of Kosovo. Many European cites - Amsterdam, Belgium, London, ect... - have large Muslim populations.

All in all, the Pew survey provides a diverse image of the world’s second largest faith and its fastest growing.