Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Benin: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Benin, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Benin in the interactive map
History of Islam in Benin
The Republic of Benin has an area of 112,622 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.2.1a. It was occupied by the French in 1872 and gained its independence from France in 1960 as the Republic of Dahomey but changed its name to Benin in 1975. Islam entered here from the north when Kusoy Muslim Dam, the ruler of the Za Dynasty of the Songhai Empire converted to Islam in 1010 and ruled from 1008 to 1020. This empire controlled north of Benin. Estimate of the Muslim population increased from 50,000 or 7.6% in 1910 to 70,000 or 8.3% in 1921, to 0.11 million or 7.0% in 1948. According to census data, the Muslim population increased to 0.15 million or 13.6% in 1961, to 1.01 million or 20.7% in 1992, to 1.65 million or 24.4% in 2002 and 2.77 million or 27.7% in 2013.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by two percentage points per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach nine million or 36% by 2050 and 21 million or 46% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Benin
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.
| Year | Total population (thousands) | Muslim population (thousands) | Muslim share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 482.0 | 36.78 | 7.63% |
| 2000 | 6,892 | 1,683 | 24.42% |
| 2100 | 46,467 | 21,375 | 46.00% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.