Vatican City: Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the largest religion in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday.

According to latest statistics compiled by the Vatican, Muslims make up 19.2 per cent of the world's population compared to Catholics which comprise 17.4 per cent.

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who assembled the data, told a Vatican newspaper: "For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us."

He added that considering all other groups, Christians made up 33 per cent of the world's population at about 2 billion people.

The Vatican released this data in their latest yearbook of statistics, which used figures collected in 2006.