---
title: "Converts to Islam"
description: "That's the percentage of Muslim Americans who say they converted to Islam, 77% say they have always been a Muslim"
date: "2007-07-21"
authors:
  - name: "Russell Heimlich"
    job_title: "Former web developer"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/russell-heimlich/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2007/07/21/converts-to-islam/"
---

# Converts to Islam

More than three-quarters (77%) of Muslim Americans say they have always been a Muslim, while 23% say they converted to Islam; 9-in-10 (91%) converts to Islam were born in the United States, and almost three-fifths (59%) of converts to Islam are African American. Two-thirds (67%) of all converts to Islam in the U.S. came from Protestant churches, 10% came from Catholicism, and just 5% from other religions. Nearly one-in-seven converts to Islam (15%) had no religion before their conversion. A 55% majority of converts identify with Sunni Islam and another quarter (24%) identify with no specific tradition. Only 6% of Muslim converts in America identify themselves as Shia. [Read More](https://www.pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans)