The north american halal market
There are approximately 8 million Muslims living in North America today. Very roughly, one quarter are of Arab descent, one quarter are of South Asian descent (primarily Pakistani and Indian), one quarter are of African American descent and the balance come from other backgrounds, including Caucasian-American and Latino.
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world. Moreover, while two thirds of the American population as a whole is over the age of 40, two thirds of the American Muslim population is under the age of 40. Furthermore, since the majority of North American Muslims are first-generation immigrants, they tend to have families that are far (25%) larger than the national average. In addition, a steady stream of both immigration and conversion supports a continually growing population. The number of American Muslims is increasing quickly (6% per year) and is expected to reach 14 million by 2014.
These figures are all taken from the most complete set of statistics on Muslims in America that is publicly available. The entire data set is available online at http://www.allied-media.com/AM/default.htm and is included later in this document in the Appendix.
Like many new immigrant groups, Muslim communities tend to be concentrated in urban centers. The largest concentrations of Muslims in North America are in the New York Metropolitan area, the Greater Toronto area, Detroit, the Capitol District (Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia), Chicago, Greater Los Angeles, and Montreal. There are also smaller but significant Muslim communities in the San Francisco East Bay area, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and Vancouver.
Muslims generally do their food shopping at specialty stores that cater to their ethnic or religious needs. This is true in both Canada and the United States. However, in Canada, a significant number of Muslims also shop at the three dominant price impact (low price) supermarket chains: No Frills (owned by Loblaw) and Food Basics (owned by Metro) and WalMart Supercenters. All three of these chains recently featured Al Safa Halal products in their Ramadan campaigns.
Al Safa is the author of this article on al safa halal. Find more information relating to islam, and muslim here.
