Islam in Brunei: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Brunei

The Sultanate was established in 1363 - 764H by Sultan MohammadShah.It was occupied by the British in 1888 - 1306H and gained itsindependence from the UK in 1984 -1404H. Currently, BruneiDarussalam consists of two close parts separated by Malaysia with total area of 5.765 sq km

A 1921 estimate of the Muslim population was 12,000 or 47% of thetotal population. Based on census data and as shown in Table 2.4.1, theMuslim population increased in number but decreased in percentagefrom 27,000 or 67.1% in 1947, to 51,000 or 60.2% in 1960, then continuedto increase to 85,000 or 62.2% in 1971, to 0.12 million or 63.4% in 1981, to0.17 million or 67.2% in 1991, to 0.25 million or 75.1% in 2001, to 0.31million or 78.8% in 2011, to 0.34 million or 80.9% in 2016 and 0.36 millionor 82.1% in 2021.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of the Muslim populationincreases by two percentage points per decade; then the Muslimpopulation is expected to be around 0.4 million throughout the second half of this century, reaching 88% of the total population by 2050 and98% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Brunei

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.