Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Djibouti: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Djibouti, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Djibouti in the interactive map
History of Islam in Djibouti
The Republic of Djibouti has an area of 23,200 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.3.2. It was occupied by France in 1897 and used to be called French Somaliland, then changed its name in 1958 to French Territory of the Afars and the Issas, and then became Djibouti upon independence in 1977. Almost the whole population is Muslim, with percentage fluctuating between 97% in 1946 to 100% in 1917 and 1960, to 99% in 2009. The non-Muslim population consists of foreigners. From 1960 to 2009 the total population increased by more than tenfold.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of the Muslim population remains at 99%; then the Muslim population is expected to be around 1.6 million throughout the second half of this century.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Djibouti
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 | 36.00 | 36.00 | 100.00% |
| 2000 | 730.9 | 723.6 | 99.00% |
| 2100 | 1,677 | 1,661 | 99.00% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.