Islam in Bermuda: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Bermuda

It has an area of 54 sq km and consists of seven main islands surrounded by more than three hundred much smaller islands, only twenty are inhabited. Its map is presented in Figure 5.2.1. It derives its name from J. Bermudez, a Spaniard who first sighted the islands in 1522, who found them uninhabited. The Islands were conquered by the British in 1609 and remain an overseas territory of the UK.

Islam started when many of African descent converted to Islam starting in the 1950s, influenced by the movement of Nation of Islam in the United States. According to census data as shown in Table 5.2.1, the Muslim population increased from none in 1911 and before, to six or 0.01% in 1960, to 393 or 0.73% in 1980 to 489 or 0.8% in 1991, to 604 or 1.0% in 2000, to 616 or 1.0% in 2010.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by 0.05 of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to remain around 700 throughout this century, reaching 1.5% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Bermuda

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.