Where the Muslims At?

US Muslim Population by State

Estimates vary for how many Muslims live in US. We’ll leave that debate to people who are good with big numbers. It’s somewhere in the 2–6 Million range. But how are they spread across the US? The question is interesting as well as important for marketers who are creating products and marketing strategies to focus on the American Muslim market. As the infographic above shows, the Muslim population in US is concentrated in just a few states. About a quarter of all US Muslims live in California and New York and another quarter in Texas, Florida, Virginia and New Jersey. The other half are sprinkled across the rest of the states. Interesting side note: Majority of the US Muslims live in a state bordered by some body of water, either the Pacific, Atlantic or Gulf coast, or the great Lakes. That’s probably also where most of the general US population lives so US Muslims are just going with the flow here. As immigrants and second generation immigrants, most are attracted to large, urban centers that offer the best economic and academic opportunities.

Muslims are where Muslims eat and pray

Since the US Census Bureau doesn’t track religious affiliation, data on the whereabouts of Muslims can only be extracted via secondary sources. By looking at where the mosques are and where the Halal Restaurants and Markets are we can correlate the Muslim population pattern. The American Mosque 2011 project did a comprehensive study on the locations of all

Mosques in America. Similarly, using data on ‘Muslim’ restaurants and markets on Zabihah.com, the ‘yelp’ of Halal Restaurants and Markets, we find an almost identically overlapped visual map

The data used for this report comes from combining and normalizing the two data sets together. Using mosques and restaurants as proxy to the entire Muslim population has some limitations. It excludes Muslims who are unaffiliated with either a mosque or Muslim Restaurant. It also relies on using Zabihah.com’s database of restaurants as being fairly comprehensive and accurate.