Islam in the United States

Islam is the third-largest religion in the United States (1.6%) after Christianity (67%) and Judaism (2.4%). Pew Research estimates that there are about 5.5 million Muslims of all ages living in the United States in 2026, making up roughly 1.6% of the total U.S. population. In 2017, twenty states, mostly in the South and Midwest, reported Islam to be the largest non-Christian religion.

According to recent research, American Muslims exhibit comparatively high levels of social integration and civic involvement when compared to Muslim populations in many other Western nations. According to studies, Muslim Americans actively engage in public life, including work, education, and community organizations, and they express a strong sense of affiliation with the United States. This pattern has been attributed to the varied ethnic makeup of the Muslim minority in the US and the larger background of religious plurality in American society.

From the 1880s to 1914, several thousand Muslims immigrated to the United States from the former territories of the Ottoman Empire and British India. The Muslim population of the U.S. increased dramatically in the second half of the 20th century due to the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished previous immigration quotas. About 72 percent of American Muslims are "second generation". In 2005, more people from Muslim-majority countries became legal permanent United States residents—nearly 96,000—than there had been in any other year in the previous two decades.