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TFI Europe

Muslims In Europe

Minimum estimates of Muslim populations in Western Europe (EU15 plus Norway and Switzerland) as a percentage of total country population:

Country	% Muslim	Total Population	Muslim Population
France	7.0%	62,901,684	4,000,000
Netherlands	6.0%	16,341,925	980,516
Denmark	3.0%	5,415,978	270,000
Switzerland	4.3%	7,301,994	310,000
Austria	4.2%	8,169,929	339,000
Sweden	3.9%	9,006,405	351,250
Germany	3.6%	82,515,988	3,000,000
Belgium	3.4%	10,445,852	355,159
United Kingdom	2.7%	59,834,300	1,615,526
Greece	2.3-2.7%	10,942,020	250,000-300,000
Norway	2.5%	4,593,041	115,000
Italy	1.4%	58,462,375	825,000
Spain	1.1%	44,108,530	485,194
Portugal	0.5%	10,084,245	50,000
Ireland	0.5%	4,130,000	19,147
Finland	0.4%	5,183,545	20,000
Luxembourg	?	448,569	?

                                     

Muslim populations in Europe

The Muslim population in Europe is very diverse. In general, Eastern Europe and Balkans (notably Russia, Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Cyprus, Greece, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) have Muslim minorities with roots dating back several hundred years, while Western Europe's Muslim population is composed mainly of new immigrants which have arrived starting from the 1960s (especially in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden). In many countries, Islam is the largest minority religion.

Currently, there is one European country with a Muslim majority in Eastern Europe: Albania. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that in Albania 70% of Albanians is Muslim, 99% in the Province of Kosovo and 90% of the ethnic Albanians in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The predominately muslim nations of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey are transcontinental countries with a small percentage of territory located in Europe.

Kosovo, and the Sanjak region which is divided between Serbia and Montenegro, as well as Bulgaria and Macedonia have a muslim minority.

Some European cities, such as Marseille in France and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, now have Muslim populations of 25%. The city of Malmö, in Sweden has a muslim population of 35%. In percentage, this is the largest population of Muslims in Europe among countries that do not have a Muslim majority. In others, like Paris, Brussels, London and Copenhagen, Denmark, the figure is in excess of 10%. Moscow is home to an estimated 1.5 million (10%) Muslims.

Immigrants have come to Europe from across the Muslim world, with different nationalities focusing on different countries. The United Kingdom has a high percentage of Muslims from the Indian sub-continent; France has many Muslims from its former colonies in North Africa; Belgium and the Netherlands have Muslims mostly from Morocco and Turkey; Germany has a large Turkish population; Norway has a large Pakistani and Somali population and Sweden has many Iraqi immigrants.

Today, the only remaining majority-Muslim regions in Europe are Kosovo, Albania, western/southern Bosnia, the region of Istanbul within Europe and some Russian republics in Northern Caucasus and the Volga region. The Muslim-dominated Sandžak of Novi Pazar is divided between Serbia and Montenegro.

According to the German Central Institute Islam Archive, the total number of Muslims in Europe in 2006 was about 53 million and in the European Union about 16 million.
                                                                         

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