Islam in Bulgaria: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Bulgaria

Islam entered Bulgaria when the capital Sofia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1385, then all Bulgaria was under the Ottomans by 1393. The Muslim rule of Bulgaria remained until it declared its independence from the weakened Ottoman Empire in 1908. Currently, the Republic of Bulgaria has an area of 110,879 sq km

The percentage of the Muslim population decreased by more than a half from 29% in 1881, to 14% in 1910. Muslims continued to decrease due to persecution and migration to Turkiye, reaching 11% in 1956. This percentage bounced to 13% in 1992 but decreased to 12% in 2001. The data for 1956-1975 is based on the assumption that all and only Turks and Roma (Gypsy) are Muslim. The number of Turks increased from 656,025 in 1956, to 780,928 in 1965, and then decreased to 730,728 in 1975. The number of Roma decreased from 197,865 in 1956, to 148,874 in 1965, to 18,323 in 1975.

Indeed, the Muslim population changed from 0.58 million or 28.8% in 1881, to 0.68 million or 21.4% in 1888, to 0.64 million or 19.4% in 1893, to 0.64 million or 17.2% in 1900, to 0.60 million or 15.0% in 1905, to 0.60 million or 13.9% in 1910, to 0.69 million or 14.3% in 1920, to 0.79 million or 14.4% in 1926, to 0.82 million or 13.5% in 1934, to 0.93 million or 13.3% in 1946, to 0.85 million or 11.2% in 1956, to 0.93 million or 11.3% in 1965, to 0.75 million or 8.6% in 1975, to 1.11 million or 13.1% in 1992, to 0.97 million or 12.6% in 2001, to 0.58 million or 10.8% in 2011, to 0.64 million or 11.8% in 2021.

In the 2011 census, more than a fifth of the population did not respond to the religion question. This explains the decrease in total population in Table 4.1.3, which is only the number of those responding to the religion question. The distribution of Muslims among ethnic groups of those who responded to the religion question in the 2011 (2021) census was as follows: 444,434 or 88% (447,893 or 89%) of Turks, 42,201 or 18% (45,817 or 18%) of Roma and 67,350 or 2% (107,777 or 2%) of Bulgars. In other words, 77% (70%) of Muslims were Turks, 12% (17%) were Bulgar, and 7% (7%) were Roma. Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by one percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 0.8 million or 15% by 2050 and 0.6 million or 20% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Bulgaria

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.