A new poll released on January 3rd by the Pew Research Center found that Muslims will soon overtake Jews as the second-largest religious group in the United States, after Christians.
Pew estimated that there are 3.45 million Muslims in the US, comprising just over 1% of the US population. They projected that by 2040, Muslims will represent the second largest religious group in the country, and by 2050, will make up 2% of the US population.
Jews currently make up nearly 2% of the US population. While Pew has published research on the Jewish community in the US for decades, their first study of American Muslims was not done until 2007.
Islam is currently the second-largest religion in the world, after Christianity, with 1.8 billion adherents worldwide.
The center noted that the US census does not record the religions of its citizens, thus the numbers that they find are solely estimates.
An earlier study from the center found that American Muslims are just as concerned as the general public about extremism in the name of their religion; 83% of the general public said they were either somewhat or very concerned about the issue, with 82% of US Muslims saying the same.
American Muslims are among the most highly targeted victims of assault in the US. Whereas 12 anti-Muslim assaults were reported in 2000, 127 were reported in 2016.