Islam in Australia: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia has an area of 7,687,809 sq km and is the sixth largest country in the world. It was conquered by the British in 1770 and gained its independence from the UK in 1901. Geographically, it consists of the mainland Australia surrounded by over 8,200 islands, including Tasmania (68,018 sq km), Melville (5,786 sq km), Kangaroo (4,416 sq km), Groote Eylandt (2,285 sq km), Bathurst (1,693 sq km), Fraser (1,653 sq km), Flinders (1,359 sq km), King (1,091 sq km), and Mornington (1,002 sq km).

Politically, the Commonwealth of Australia consists of six states, three territories, and seven external territories. The states are: New South Wales (800,809 sq km), Queensland (1,729,958 sq km), South Australia (984,179 sq km), Tasmania (68,018 sq km), Victoria (227,496 sq km), and Western Australia (2,526,574 sq km). The territories are: Australian Capital (2,358 sq km), Jervis Bay (70 sq km) and Northern (1,348,199 sq km). The external territories: Australian Antarctic (5,896,500 sq km), and the islands of Christmas (136 sq km), Cocos or Keeling (14 sq km) and Norfolk (35 sq km), and the uninhabited islands of Ashmore & Cartier (199 sq km), Coral Sea (10 sq km) and Heard & McDonald (372 sq km). Almost a third of the Australian population lives in New South Wales, which includes the largest Australian city of Sydney. A fourth of the Australian population lives in Victoria, which includes the second largest Australian city of Melbourne. Finally, a tenth of the Australian Population lives in Western Australia.

Muslims moved to Australia from current Indonesia starting in the sixteenth century. But their numbers remained small. The British then brought Malays between 1850 and 1930 to work as pearl divers and in sugar cane plantations. Then Afghans, between 1862 and 1930, to help breeding camels and steering them through the Australian desert for economic purpose. Then Indians between 1879 and 1916, as indentured labor on sugar cane plantations.

Albanian refugees settled here between 1920 s and 1930s. After WWII, then Turkish Cypriots in 1950s and 1960s, followed by Turks between 1968 and 1972, and then Lebanese Muslims in 1970s. After the relaxation of immigration laws in 1970s, more Muslims emigrated here from many countries.

Based on census data as shown in Table 6.1.1a, the Muslim population decreased from 561 or 0.05% in 1861, to 382 or 0.02% in 1871, then increased to 616 or 0.03% in 1881, to 1,847 or 0.06% in 1891, to 3,641 or 0.10% in 1901, to 3,908 or 0.09% in 1911, to 2,868 or 0.05% in 1921, to 1,877 or 0.03% in 1933, then to 2,704 or 0.04% in 1947. A substantial increase occurred between the censuses of 1947 and 1971 happened towards the end of the 1960s as can be seen from the censuses of 1954, 1961, and 1966. In these censuses, Muslims were included in non-Christian religions, excluding Judaism. Thus, the number of Muslims continued to increase to 22,311 or 0.2% in 1971, to 45,200 or 0.4% in 1976, to 0.08 million or 0.6% in 1981, to 0.11 million or 0.9% in 1986, to 0.15 million or 1.0% in 1991, to 0.20 million or 1.2% in 1996, to 0.28 million or 1.7% in 2001, to 0.34 million or 1.9% in 2006, to 0.48 million or 2.4% in 2011, to 0.60 million or 2.8% in 2016 and 0.81 million or 3.5% in 2021. Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by one percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 2.2 million or 7% by 2050 and 4.6 million or 12% by 2100.

Almost half of the Muslim population lives in New South Wales, and they increased steadily to 5% of the total population. Almost one-third of the Muslim population lives in Victoria, and they increased to 5% of the total population as well. Thus, almost 80% of Australian Muslims live in the southeast of Australia, between Sydney and Melbourne. This percentage used to be 90% in 1981, but it is decreasing slowly as Muslims are spreading around to other states. The distribution of Muslims per state and territory since 1861 is summarized in Table 6.1.1b. Prior to 1911, data of ACT and Jervis Bay Territory were included in NSW. Prior to 1997 Jervis Bay territory was included with the ACT, while Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands were excluded from population estimates for Australia. Population of Norfolk Island is still excluded from the total population.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Australia

The figures below are from the CoMPS historical dataset. Population values are expressed in thousands; 2100 is a modelled projection, not a present-day count.

For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.