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Which US metropolitan areas had the largest Muslim populations in 2025?
Executive Summary
The available 2025-targeted materials do not present a single definitive metropolitan ranking compiled in 2025; instead, the best evidence combines legacy metro-level estimates from the U.S. Religion Census through 2020 with state-level tallies and journalism-style city lists that infer likely metropolitan leaders in 2025. Taken together, the metropolitan areas most consistently identified as having the largest Muslim populations are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit (including Dearborn), Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Atlanta, and the Newark/Paterson, NJ area — but this conclusion rests on extrapolation from 2020 metro data and 2025 state estimates rather than a fresh, nationwide 2025 metro census [1] [2] [3].
1. Why there’s no single 2025 metro list and what the data actually show
No authoritative, nationwide metropolitan Muslim-population ranking produced in 2025 is present in the source material; the most rigorous metro-level dataset is the U.S. Religion Census that runs through 2020, which provides metro-area estimates and percent shares but not a 2025 update. Researchers and aggregators cited here explicitly warn that methodological changes and gaps across years limit direct comparability, and that the most recent systematic metro breakdown publicly available in these sources stops at 2020 [1] [4]. Complementary 2025-state tallies (e.g., World Population Review-style state counts) and journalist lists of prominent Muslim cities supply plausible updates by noting growth trends and concentrations in key urban areas, but those are not the same as a formal 2025 metro census [2] [3].
2. Which metros repeatedly appear as the largest — converging signals
Multiple sources converge on a similar roster of large Muslim-population metros even if they use different methods. State-level totals show New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas as the top states by Muslim population in 2025, implying that the largest metro areas within those states—New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Newark/Paterson, and Dallas–Fort Worth/Houston—are among the nation’s largest Muslim-population metros [2]. Independent reporting and community-focused lists emphasize Dearborn/Detroit for its dense Arab-American Muslim community and identify Minneapolis–St. Paul, Philadelphia, and Atlanta as established Muslim hubs, consistent with historical immigration patterns and local institution density such as mosques and Islamic schools [3] [5].
3. Methodological limits: percent vs. absolute numbers and changing boundaries
Different sources rank metros by percentage of the population that is Muslim versus absolute counts, and that distinction matters when identifying “largest” metro Muslim populations. The U.S. Religion Census offers metro percent and congregation-based estimates through 2020, while state tallies reported in 2025 give absolute state counts but not the same metro granularity, forcing inferential steps to map state totals back onto metros. Changes in metropolitan statistical area boundaries, differential growth rates since 2020, and the uneven availability of post-2020 local surveys introduce uncertainty. Any 2025 list derived from these materials should be treated as an informed estimate rather than definitive [1] [4] [2].
4. Competing viewpoints and potential agendas in the sources
The materials include a community-oriented Top-10 city article that highlights Muslim-friendly amenities and relocation advice, which emphasizes municipal attractiveness and may foreground cities with visible Muslim cultural life rather than strictly the largest populations. That piece aligns with advocacy or lifestyle reporting priorities, while the U.S. Religion Census and state population compendia aim for demographic enumeration. Journalistic and community sources can overemphasize cultural prominence, whereas religious-census and population-review sources prioritize numerical estimates; combining both yields a fuller but still imperfect picture [3] [1] [2].
5. What a precise 2025 answer would require and practical takeaways
A precise 2025 metro ranking requires either a formal 2025 U.S. Religion Census metro update or consolidated municipal and state demographic releases aggregated by a neutral statistical body; absent that, the best practice is to treat the combined signal from 2020 metro estimates plus 2025 state counts and city-level reporting as a high-confidence short list: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit/Dearborn, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Atlanta, and Newark/Paterson. This list reflects consistent, multi-source corroboration but not a single 2025 enumeration and should be cited as an informed synthesis rather than a definitive census figure [1] [2] [3].