Many people mistakenly think that Muslims are divided into two halves: Sunnis and Shi'it. In reality Shia are between 7.5% to 11%. All the rest (93.5%) are Sunnis (ignoring the fact the Shi'ism is a totally different religion than Islam). The word Shia includes all kinds of Shi'it Sects such as (Twelvers Imami Rafidi Shia, Isma'ili Shia, Alawi (Nusairi) Shia, Druze Shia, Zaidi Shia).
The first statistic was all taken from the British Encyclopedia for the year 1997. However, we feel that it has some incorrect numbers for some countries such as Iran. Their number is compared to the total number of Muslims which is 1,482,596,925
Country Name | Total Population | Percentage of Shia | Number of Shia | Sect |
Afghanistan | 22,664,136 | 15% | 3,399,620 | Imami |
Azerbaijan | 7,676,953 | 75% | 5,757,715 | Imami |
Bahrain | 590,042 | 61.3% | 361,696 | Imami |
India | 952,107,694 | 3% | 28,563,231 | Isma'ili, Imami |
Iran | 66,094,264 | 93.4% | 61,732,043 | Imami |
Iraq | 21,422,292 | 62.5% | 13,388,933 | Imami |
Kuwait | 1,950,047 | 30% | 585,014 | Imami |
Lebanon | 3,776,317 | 41% | 1,548,290 | Imami, Druze |
Oman | 2,186,548 | 2% | 43,731 | Imami |
Pakistan | 129,275,660 | 20% | 25,855,132 | Imami |
Qatar | 547,761 | 5% | 27,388 | Imami |
Saudi Arabia | 19,409,058 | 3.3% | 640,499 | Imami |
Syria | 15,608,648 | 15.3% | 2,388,123 | Nusairi, Druze |
Turkey | 62,484,478 | 20% | 12,496,896 | Nusairi |
United Arab Emirates | 3,057,337 | 16% | 489,174 | Imami |
Yemen | 13,483,178 | 46.9% | 6,323,610 | Zaidi |
Total | 11.0% | 163,601,094 |
This statistic was all taken from many independent sources for the year 1999. It is more accurate than the previous one. It is important to remember that Shia have a high birth rate since their religion allows adultery (Mut'a). The percentage of Shia this time is relative to the percentage of Muslims.
Country Name | Total Population | Percentage of Muslims | Number of Muslims | Percentage of Shia to Muslims | Number of Shia |
Afghanistan | 22,664,136 | 100 | 22,664,136 | 15 | 3,399,620 |
Azerbaijan | 7,676,953 | 93.4 | 7,170,274 | 80 | 5,736,219 |
Bahrain | 590,042 | 100 | 590,042 | 65 | 383,527 |
India | 952,107,694 | 14 | 133,295,077 | 10 - 2 | 13,329,507 |
Iran | 66,094,264 | 99 | 65,433,321 | 70 | 45,803,324 |
Iraq | 21,422,292 | 97 | 20,779,623 | 65 - 30 | 13,506,755 |
Kuwait | 1,950,047 | 89 | 1,735,542 | 30 | 520,662 |
Lebanon | 3,776,317 | 70 | 2,643,422 | 65 | 1,718,224 |
Oman | 2,186,548 | 100 | 382,000 | 2 | 7,640 |
Pakistan | 129,275,660 | 97 | 125,397,390 | 15 - 2 | 18,809,608 |
Qatar | 547,761 | 100 | 547,761 | 15 | 82,164 |
Saudi Arabia | 19,409,058 | 100 | 19,409,058 | 5 | 970,452 |
Syria | 15,608,648 | 90 | 14,047,783 | 15 - 9 | 2,107,167 |
Turkey | 62,484,478 | 99.8 | 62,359,509 | 6 | 3,741,570 |
United Arab Emirates | 3,057,337 | 96 | 2,935,044 | 15 | 440,256 |
Yemen | 13,483,178 | 99 | 13,348,346 | 15 | 2,002,251 |
Total |
7.58% | 112,558,954 |