Survey Analysis Report · 1447 AH
State of the Ummah
in the World
A global survey of 1,530 Muslims across 87 countries on faith practice, challenges, and support needs.
1,530
Respondents
87
Countries
78.2%
Praying daily Five Prayers
47.1%
Having Frequent Stress
73.5%
Finding it challenging to maintain khushū' (focus) in prayers
36.0%
Needs support in gaining more knowledge
Executive Summary
- •Practice remains strong at the top level: 78.2% say they perform all five daily prayers consistently.
- •The biggest lived challenge is quality of worship: Having concentration and khushū' (focus) in prayers is the most common reported struggle at 73.5%.
- •Knowledge is the clearest intervention opportunity: the leading support need is Gaining more knowledge at 36.0%, and the top reason behind struggles is Lacking enough knowledge or understanding at 44.8%.
- •Coping is heavily self-directed and digital: Pray or make du'ā for guidance and help is the most common response to doubts or spiritual difficulty at 74.2%.
- •Stress is concentrated in younger adults: respondents aged 18–34 show a frequent-stress rate of 52.0%, well above the oldest age group.
- •Country coverage is concentrated: Nigeria alone accounts for 18.5% of the sample, and the top three countries contribute 45.6% of responses.
Method and caveats
- •The report reflects self-reported behaviour, self-reported challenges, and voluntary participation.
- •The survey was shared mainly through Greentech Apps Foundation's app users, digital channels, WhatsApp groups, and Muslim community networks.
- •The sample may over-represent practising, digitally engaged, and community-connected Muslims.
- •Country comparisons are filtered to usable sample sizes to avoid noisy outliers.
- •Conditional analysis highlights association patterns, not causation.
- •Across the key questions used in the report, the highest missing rate is only 0.1%.
A Living Report
This is a live report. As more responses are collected and further analysis is completed, we expect to update the findings, refine the interpretation, and add new sections where useful.
Future versions may include deeper analysis by region, age group, gender, learning habits, and specific support needs. We welcome feedback from readers, researchers, community leaders, and users who can help us improve the quality and usefulness of this work.
Section 1
Demographic Profile
The sample is broad, but it is not evenly distributed across countries or age groups.
Gender mix
57.2%
Male
41.5%
Female
Age-group mix
9%
Under 18
27%
18–24
32%
25–34
23%
35–50
9%
51+
Demographic takeaways
- •The sample is male-majority at 57.2%, with 41.5% female respondents.
- •The age profile is concentrated in early and mid-adulthood: 18–24 and 25–34 together make up 58.2% of the sample.
- •Country representation is broad but uneven. Country comparisons should be read as large-sample directional signals, not population estimates.
Section 2
Faith Practice and Learning Patterns
This section focuses on outward practice, learning habits, and the role of digital tools in respondents' religious lives.
Prayer regularity
Qur'an reading frequency
Islamic classes / halaqas attendance
Most-used Islamic digital resources
Practice and learning takeaways
- •78.2% report performing all five daily prayers consistently, indicating a relatively committed respondent base.
- •Qur'an engagement is meaningful but less universal than prayer consistency: 57.6% report reading or reciting daily or almost daily.
- •Formal learning is more uneven. Only 30.2% report regular class or halaqa participation, which helps explain why knowledge gaps still appear prominently later in the report.
- •Digital religious support is mainstream rather than niche. Respondents heavily use apps and online content, especially Qur'an apps at 95.7%.
Section 3
Challenges, Causes, and Support Needs
This is the core diagnostic section: what respondents struggle with, what they believe is behind those struggles, and what they say would help most.
Top reported faith challenges
Biggest reported reasons behind struggles
Most helpful support requested
What this section suggests
- •The main issue is not a single collapse in basic practice. Instead, respondents report difficulties in focus, self-regulation, consistency, and maintaining momentum.
- •The most common challenge is Having concentration and khushū' (focus) in prayers at 73.5%, which points toward quality-of-worship support, not only reminder-based support.
- •The strongest perceived root cause is Lacking enough knowledge or understanding at 44.8%. That aligns directly with the top requested support: Gaining more knowledge.
- •Community and mentorship matter almost as much as content. The second and third support requests show that respondents want people and structures, not only more information.
Section 4
Conditional Analysis
When a respondent says a specific challenge is true, what do they do, and how do they differ from the sample overall?
If time is the challenge
Self-directed coping dominates
Searching online for answers over-indexes by +6.2 pp vs. all respondents, while talking to knowledgeable friends/family over-indexes by +4.4 pp.
If doubts are the challenge
Search & avoidance spike together
Searching online over-indexes by +7.6 pp and trying to ignore doubts over-indexes by +6.4 pp — uncertainty triggers active search, not withdrawal alone.
If motivation is the challenge
Knowledge and community lead
Gaining more knowledge (31.0%), being part of a supportive community (18.6%), and having a mentor (17.5%) are the top requested supports.
Conditional takeaways
- •Respondents who struggle with time for Islamic activities over-index on self-directed coping strategies — pointing to a need for low-friction, habit-compatible support rather than heavy programs.
- •Respondents who report doubts or questions about faith lean more heavily on both response actions and digital resources, suggesting that uncertainty often triggers search behavior rather than withdrawal.
- •When motivation in worship is the problem, requested support shifts toward knowledge, mentorship, and community structure, not only reminders or inspirational material.
Section 5
Gender Differences
The objective is not to overstate small differences, but to isolate where the survey shows stable directional variation by gender.
Frequent stress — Female
50.2%
Frequent stress — Male
43.0%
Frequent stress — Prefer not to say
39.0%
Top challenge rates by gender (%)
| Challenge | Female | Male |
|---|---|---|
| Concentration & khushū' in prayers | 81.1 | 68.1 |
| Avoiding sins or overcoming bad habits | 51.2 | 62.1 |
| Reading / understanding the Qur'an | 39.7 | 42.7 |
| Staying motivated in worship | 40.9 | 32.2 |
| Finding time for Islamic activities | 34.5 | 35.4 |
| Maintaining consistency in praying | 28.3 | 31.1 |
Gender takeaways
- •Prayer regularity remains comparatively high across gender groups, but the mix of struggle types is more revealing than the top-line practice rate alone.
- •Female respondents report the highest frequent-stress rate at 50.2%.
- •Female respondents rate concentration & khushū' as a challenge at a notably higher rate (81.1%) than male respondents (68.1%).
Section 6
Age Patterns
Age differences are among the clearest structural patterns in the data, especially around stress, consistency, and challenge intensity.
Frequent stress by age group (%)
Daily five-prayer rate by age group (%)
Top challenge rates by age group (%)
| Challenge | Under 18 | 18–24 | 25–34 | 35–50 | 51+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concentration & khushū' | 75.4 | 77.8 | 73.1 | 69.3 | 71 |
| Avoiding sins / bad habits | 76.3 | 64.4 | 60.1 | 48.5 | 37.4 |
| Reading / understanding Qur'an | 28.1 | 39.2 | 42.5 | 43.1 | 50.3 |
| Staying motivated in worship | 43.9 | 43.8 | 36.1 | 28.3 | 25.8 |
| Finding time for Islamic activities | 40.4 | 34.6 | 38.1 | 34 | 25.8 |
| Consistency in praying | 36 | 32.8 | 29.3 | 29.4 | 21.9 |
Age takeaways
- •The clearest age signal is stress concentration among younger respondents. The highest frequent-stress rate appears in 25–34 at 53.7%.
- •The strongest daily five-prayer rate appears in 51 and older at 83.9%, while the lowest appears in Under 18 at 70.2%.
- •Together, the data suggest that younger groups face a heavier balance of pressure and inconsistency, making them a strong priority segment for habit-building and support structures.
Section 7
Country Comparisons
Limited to countries with enough responses to support a meaningful read. This section highlights directional contrasts rather than country rankings.
Country comparison on key indicators
| Country | Daily Prayer % | High Stress % | Doubts % | Knowledge /10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria (n=283) | 90.5 | 52.7 | 23 | 4.9 |
| Bangladesh (n=209) | 70.8 | 54.5 | 14.8 | 3.9 |
| India (n=206) | 61.7 | 56.3 | 29.6 | 4.2 |
| United Kingdom (n=77) | 84.4 | 46.8 | 23.4 | 4.8 |
| Pakistan (n=71) | 57.7 | 46.5 | 28.2 | 4.7 |
| United States (n=56) | 82.1 | 39.3 | 16.1 | 4.9 |
| Ghana (n=54) | 96.3 | 53.7 | 27.8 | 4.4 |
| United Arab Emirates (n=40) | 82.5 | 62.5 | 30 | 4.5 |
| Malaysia (n=37) | 89.2 | 21.6 | 21.6 | 4.8 |
| Kenya (n=34) | 82.4 | 35.3 | 17.6 | 5.1 |
| Canada (n=30) | 93.3 | 40 | 26.7 | 5.3 |
| Indonesia (n=28) | 82.1 | 28.6 | 17.9 | 5.4 |
Country takeaways
- •This comparison only includes countries with at least 20 responses so the metric swings are more stable.
- •United Arab Emirates has the highest frequent-stress rate in the comparison set, while Ghana has the highest daily five-prayer rate.
- •The country table is most useful for spotting contrasts between practice strength, stress load, doubt prevalence, and self-rated knowledge rather than reducing countries to a single score.
Section 8
Implications and Priority Actions
Primary intervention lever
Knowledge-building is the cleanest broad lever because both the top perceived cause and top requested support point in the same direction.
Highest-pressure segment
Respondents aged 18–34 carry the heaviest stress load, so interventions should assume pressure, inconsistency, and fragmented schedules.
Delivery implication
Respondents already use digital pathways heavily, but those pathways should route toward trusted people and structured learning.
Program design implication
The strongest need is not only more reminders. It is better concentration, stronger habits, clearer knowledge, and supportive human structures.
- •Build around concentration and consistency, not only reminders: the top reported challenge is Having concentration and khushū' (focus) in prayers at 73.5%, so intervention design should include practical khushu, focus, and habit-maintenance content.
- •Treat knowledge as the main lever: both the leading root cause (Lacking enough knowledge or understanding, 44.8%) and the leading support need (Gaining more knowledge, 36.0%) point toward knowledge-building as the strongest broad intervention.
- •Pair digital pathways with trusted human guidance: respondents rely far more on Search online for answers (55.0%) than on scholar advice (23.3%), so digital content should route people toward reliable teachers and communities rather than stop at self-service answers.
- •Prioritize younger adults for stress-compatible support design: programs for 18–34 respondents should assume time pressure, emotional load, and fragmented routines.
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