Islam in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast): history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire has an area of 322,463 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.2.4. It was occupied by France in 1886 and gained its independence from France in 1960. Islam entered here through trade starting in the eighteenth century. The traders, who were mostly from Dyula, established Muslim communities in the northern districts which became centers of Islamization for the whole region.

Accordingly, estimates of the Muslim population decreased from 0.3 million or 12.5% in 1910, to 0.2 million or 9.9% in 1925, and continued to increase since then to 0.7 million or 21.7% in 1957, to 0.9 million or 23.5% in 1965. Post-independence censuses indicate an increase to 2.2 million or 33.5% in 1975, to 4.2 million or 38.7% in 1988, to 5.9 million or 38.7% in 1998 and 9.7 million or 42.9% in 2014. At the last census, 24.2% or 5.5 million of the total population were foreigners, of whom 72.7% or 4.0 million are Muslim (70.5% in 1998), and therefore, 33.7% of Ivoirian citizens were Muslim, which increased from 27.4% in 1998.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by one percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to increase to 24 million or 47% by 2050 and 46 million or 52% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

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.