WASHINGTON - The world Muslim population in 2030 is expected to reach 2.2 billion from 1.6 billion in 2010, with Pakistan becoming the largest Muslim nation, a study said. The population projection released Thursday by the Pew Research Centres Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington said the Muslim population would increase about 35 percent in the next 20 years. Globally, the Muslim population is forecast to grow at about twice the rate of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades - an average annual growth rate of 1.5 percent for Muslims, compared with 0.7 per cent for non-Muslims, the report said. Muslims would constitute 26.4 percent of the worlds total projected population of 8.3 billion in 2030, it said. Currently Muslims make up 23.4 per cent of the total world population of 6.9 billion. The report said the projections are based both on past demographic trends and on assumptions about how these trends will play out in future years, noting such changes as the political climate in the Untied States or Europe could dramatically affect the patterns of Muslim migration. Under current projections, a majority of the worlds Muslims (about 60 percent) will continue to live in the Asia-Pacific region. But Pakistan is expected to surpass Indonesia as the country with the single largest Muslim population, with a population of about 256m from current 178m. Indonesia is projected to have 238.8m Muslims in 2030, with India a close third with 236.18m and Bangladesh fourth with a projected 187.5m. In the United States, the projections said the number of Muslims will more double in the next 20 years to 6.2m from 2.6m in 2010. Europes Muslim population is projected to grow from 44.1m in 2010 to 58.2m in 2030.