Islam in Chile: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Chile

The Republic of Chile has an area of 756,102 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 5.4.4. It was conquered by Spain in 1540 and gained its independence in 1818. The first Muslims came from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine towards the end of the nineteenth century. They were fleeing economic hardship and enlistment in the Ottoman army. But still they were referred to as Turks!

According to census data, The Muslim population remained at 0.00% of the total population throughout the nineteenth century, increasing from two in 1865 and 1875, to 29 in 1885, to 58 in 1895. It then oscillated from 1,498 or 0.04% in 1907, to 402 or 0.01% in 1920, to 956 or 0.02% in 1952, to 522 or 0.01% in 1960, and continued increasing since then to 1,431 or 0.02% in 1970 and to 2,894 or 0.03% in 2002, to 3,288 or 0.03% in 2012. The last two censuses refer to population aged 15 and older.

Thus, from census data, and assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by 0.01 of a percentage point every half century; then the Muslim population is expected to remain less than 10,000 or 0.05% throughout this century.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Chile

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.