Smoke rises over Tehran after US and Israel air strikes. Iran has the largest Shia population of any country in the world. Photograph: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
Just as with Christianity, there are many denominations in Islam, with two major ones – Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. The vast majority of Muslims are Sunni, about 87–90 per cent, while Shias make up the remaining 10–13 per cent.
Of the world’s 8.3 billion people, about 2.1 billion (just over 25 per cent) are Muslim. Christianity is the largest religion, with 2.65 billion adherents (about 32 per cent), of whom 1.3 billion are Catholic, the largest Christian denomination.
Twenty to 23 per cent of the world’s Muslims live in the Middle East and North Africa, the great majority Sunni.
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