Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Burundi: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Burundi, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Burundi in the interactive map
History of Islam in Burundi
The Republic of Burundi has an area of 27,830 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.4.1. It was occupied by the Germans in 1899, but lost it to the Belgians in 1916, and became part of Ruanda-Urundi; the predecessor of Rwanda and Burundi. They both gained independence from Belgium in 1962 as separate countries. Islam entered here during the nineteenth century through commerce. By 1861 these lands were under the Muslim Sultanate of Zanzibar.
The Muslim population was estimated at 8,220 or 0.5% in 1934, and 26,000 or 0.8% in 1965 (survey), then according to census data, it increased to 84,000 or 1.9% in 1990 and 201,000 or 2.7% in 2008. Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by a quarter of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to increase to close to one million or 3.8% by 2050 and close to two million or 5% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Burundi
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 | 1,493 | 2.99 | 0.20% |
| 2000 | 6,244 | 143.6 | 2.30% |
| 2100 | 39,310 | 1,965 | 5.00% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.