Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Cameroon: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Cameroon, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Cameroon in the interactive map
History of Islam in Cameroon
The Republic of Cameroon has an area of 475,440 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.4.2a. The former French Cameroon and part of British Cameroon merged in 1961 to form the present country. It was occupied by Germany in 1884, and then partitioned between France (most of current Cameroon) and Great Britain (west side) in 1919. Islam entered the northern parts in 1085 with the start of the Sayfawa Muslim Dynasty of the Kanem-Bornu Empire which was founded by Hummay bnu Abdul Jalil who ruled it until 1097. This Dynasty lasted until 1389 and was based in Kanem in west Chad, and controlled Lake Chad.
The Muslim population was estimated at half million or 23.8% in 1921. According to census data, the Muslim population increased from 0.34 million or 23.5% in 1953 to 3.7 million or 20.9% in 2005. A choropleth map illustrating the presence of Muslims per region is presented in Figure 3.4.2b. Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims remains constant at 20.9%; then the Muslim population is expected to be close to eleven million by 2050 and exceed eighteen million by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Cameroon
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 | 3,290 | 783.3 | 23.81% |
| 2000 | 14,894 | 3,114 | 20.91% |
| 2100 | 86,877 | 18,166 | 20.91% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.