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Nanette Shaw
NEW YORK In a follow-up to this weekıs landmark publication of the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2001, a new report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date demographic profile of Muslims living in the United States. The report, Profile of the U.S. Muslim Population, was written by Drs Barry Kosmin, Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar, the co-authors of ARIS 2001. The new report and ARIS 2001 can both be found on The Graduate Centerıs website at www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/studies_index.htm. Because of wide national interest in the size and characteristics of the Muslim population in Americaas reported in The New York Times on October 25, 2001The Graduate Center has released the data specifically pertaining to Muslims in advance of profiles of other religious groups in the United States. Based on a random digit-dialed telephone survey of 50,281 American residential households in the continental United States, the report reveals: -- A U.S. Muslim population of 1.1 million adults, with a possible maximum range of 2.2 million adults. This suggests a national total population, including children, of up to 2.8 million. -- A population that is preponderantly male and young. -- A more than twofold increase of the U.S. Muslim population since the last comprehensive national survey conducted by the CUNY Graduate Center, the 1990 National Survey of Religious Identification. -- In 1990 CUNY National Survey of Religious Identification, 0.3% of the weighted national sample of respondents self-identified as Muslims, whereas the ARIS 2001 report shows a figure of 0.5 %. The 8-page report also explains the reasons for the misperceptions currently circulating about the estimated size and characteristics of the U.S. Muslim population. ³The majority of Arab-Americans are not Muslims and the majority of Muslims are not Arab-Americans," according to the ARIS report. The new study examines the following important topics: -- The population size of U.S. Muslims -- The religious characteristics of U.S. Muslim households, including conversions and religious-group switching -- Socio-demographic characteristics of U.S. Muslim adults including percentage of African-American Muslims -- Political party political preference -- Methodological issues -- The popular confusion of Arabs with Muslims -- The Arab-American population -- Non-Christian religious groups The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York. According to a recent National Research Council report, more than a third of The Graduate Center's rated programs rank among the nation's top 20 at public and private institutions, nearly a quarter are among the top ten when compared to publicly supported institutions alone, and more than half are among the top five programs at publicly supported institutions in the northeast. Further information on The Graduate Center's programs and activities can be found on its website at: www.gc.cuny.edu. |