Islam in Canada: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Canada

It has an area of 9,984,670 sq km, and is the second largest country in the world, after Russia. It consists of ten provinces: Alberta (661,848 sq km or 6.6%), British Columbia (944,735 sq km or 9.5%), Manitoba (647,797 sq km or 6.5%), New Brunswick (72,908 sq km or 0.7%), Newfoundland and Labrador (405,212 sq km or 4.1%), Nova Scotia (55,284 sq km or 0.6%), Quebec (1,542,056 sq km or 15.4%), Saskatchewan (651,036 sq km or 6.5%), Ontario (1,076,395 sq km or 10.8%), and Prince Edward Island (5,660 sq km or 0.1%), and three territories: Northwest Territories (1,346,106 sq km or 13.5%), Nunavut (2,093,190 sq km or 21.0%), and Yukon (482,443 sq km or 4.8%).

The number of Muslims increased from none in 1851 and 1861, to thirteen in Ontario in 1871, to 47 in 1901 (six in British Columbia, one in Manitoba, fifteen in Ontario and fifteen in Yukon), to 797 in 1911, to 478 in 1921 (63 in Alberta, 82 in British Columbia, 31 in Manitoba, ten in New Brunswick, 40 in Nova Scotia, 77 in Ontario, 31 in Quebec and 144 in Saskatchewan), to 645 in 1931 (126 in Alberta, 136 in British Columbia, 36 in Manitoba, 9 in New Brunswick, 37 in Nova Scotia, 55 in Ontario, 45 in Quebec, and 193 in Saskatchewan).

Thus, the Muslim population increased from none before 1971, to double digits between 1871 and 1901, to triple digits between 1911 and 1931, but remained at 0.00% of the total population. After WWII, the estimated Muslim population increased to 1,800 or 0.01% in 1951, and 5,800 or 0.03% in 1961. After the Immigration Act of 1967, which introduced the Points System, Canada became more welcoming to people from all over the world, and not only Europeans, as long as they will benefit the country. Thus, the estimated Muslim population jumped to 33,430 or 0.2% in 1971, to 69,300 or 0.3% in 1976, and based on census data to 98,160 or 0.4% in 1981, to 253,260 or 0.9% in 1991, to 579,640 or 2.0% in 2001, to 1.05 million or 3.2% in 2011, to 1.78 million or 4.9% in 2021.

The 2001 was the last census to collect information on religious adherence, which started being collected in 2011 as national survey. Muslims are found in every Canadian province and territory, but over half of Canadian Muslims live in Ontario (53%), almost a fourth live in Quebec (24%), over a tenth live in Alberta (11%) and almost a tenth live in British Columbia (7%).

Thus, assuming that the Muslim population will continue to increase by 1.5 of a percentage point per decade, then the Muslim population is expected to exceed to four million or 9.5% by 2050 and nine million or 17% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Canada

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.