How do Michigan’s Muslim population distributions compare to national state averages in 2025?
Executive summary
Michigan’s Muslim population in 2025 is variously reported between about 240,000 and 270,000 people, or roughly 2.4–2.75% of the state’s residents according to state-focused outlets; national rankings place Michigan among the handful of states with at least a 2% Muslim share, behind larger totals in New York, California and Illinois (counts: New York ~724,475; California ~504,056; Illinois top-ranked by share) [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. Michigan’s estimated totals: multiple counts, one conclusion
Public reporting shows variation: Michigan is cited as home to about 240,000 Muslims (2.4% of state population) in Michigan Advance (citing the governor’s proclamation) and local reporting, while a legal-rights analysis gives a higher estimate of roughly 270,000 (about 2.75%) [1] [3]. World Population Review and related outlets put Michigan’s Muslim count at just over 241,000 and note concentration around Dearborn and Hamtramck in metro Detroit — a consistent geographic pattern across sources [2] [4] [6].
2. Where Michigan sits in national context
State-level rankings from compilations show Michigan among the few states with Muslim shares at or above 2% — a grouping that includes Maryland, Virginia and Minnesota — while states with the largest absolute Muslim populations are New York, California and Illinois, followed by New Jersey and Texas; Michigan appears below those mega-population states in absolute numbers but high enough in share to be notable [5] [4]. Datapandas lists Michigan’s Muslim population at about 241,828 and ranks it just after Texas and New Jersey in overall counts, underscoring Michigan’s position as significant but not top-tier in raw numbers [4].
3. Urban concentration drives state differences
Reporting and demographic summaries stress that Muslim Americans concentrate in metropolitan areas. Michigan’s Muslim presence is centered in the Detroit metro — especially Dearborn, long noted for its dense Arab-American and Muslim community — which explains why Michigan’s statewide Muslim share is higher than many states with comparable overall populations but lower than the biggest coastal states that host multiple large metro areas [6] [2] [7].
4. Methodological reasons for differing numbers
Available sources note that estimates of U.S. Muslim populations are inconsistent across surveys and compilations: national totals range in different reports from about 3 million to more than 4 million, and analysts warn that state-level figures are often imprecise [5] [8] [9]. World Population Review and local outlets rely on different base datasets than legal-advocacy or nonprofit reports, which helps explain why Michigan’s estimate is given as ~241k in some places and ~270k in others [2] [3] [4].
5. What the share numbers mean politically and socially
Michigan’s roughly 2–2.75% Muslim share has visible political and cultural implications: governors and civic leaders marked Muslim American Heritage Month and local electoral behavior in heavily Muslim cities has drawn attention in state politics, demonstrating the community’s civic weight in certain localities even when statewide totals are a small minority [1] [6]. This fits national reporting that Muslims are disproportionately urban and civic-engaged, with community institutions (mosques, schools) clustered where populations are concentrated [8] [9].
6. Competing perspectives and data caveats
Compilers such as World Population Review and datapools like Datapandas present specific counts and rankings, while legal and advocacy organizations provide somewhat different totals — none of the sources claim a single definitive census-quality count for 2025 [4] [3] [2]. Journalists and analysts cited by 24/7 Wall St. and other outlets explicitly caution that data on Muslim populations are prone to inaccuracy, so trends and relative rankings are more reliable than any single point estimate [10] [5].
7. Bottom line and what’s not resolved by current reporting
Current reporting consistently ranks Michigan among the states with one of the larger Muslim shares (around or above 2%) and places its absolute Muslim population in the low-to-mid hundreds of thousands, typically cited near 240–270k [1] [3] [4]. Available sources do not mention a single official 2025 federal count that definitively fixes Michigan’s Muslim population, and they underscore that national and state-level figures vary depending on data source and methodology [2] [10] [8].