Islam in Fiji: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Fiji

The Republic of Fiji has a total area of 18,333 sq km and consists of 844 islands covering over 1.3 million sq km of the South Pacific Ocean. About 106 of these islands are inhabited, the largest of which are Viti Levu (10,429 sq km) where the capital Suva that includes all the population but fifth lives, Vanua Levu (5,556 sq km), Taveuni (470 sq km) which includes one-sixth of the total population, Kadavu (411 sq km), Gau (140 sq km), and Koro (140 sq km). A map of these islands is presented in Figure 6.2.1. The Fiji Islands were conquered by the British in 1874 and gained their independence from the UK in 1970.

Muslims entered the Islands in 1879 under the indenture system that was introduced by the British Empire. Accordingly, the British brought slave like labor force from the Indian sub-continent to exploit the British dependencies. Ethnic censuses were carried out since 1881. Later religious censuses carried since 1911, and they show that about a tenth of the Indian population was Muslim in 1921. Using this data, we can estimate the Muslim population between 1881 and 1901.

Based on census data, the Muslim population increased from none in 1879, to 59 or 0.05% in 1881, to 747 or 0.6% in 1891, to 1,711 or 1.4% in 1901, to 5,302 or 3.8% in 1911, to 6,435 or 4.1% in 1921, to 11,290 or 5.7% in 1936, to 16,932 or 6.5% in 1946, to 25,394 or 7.3% in 1956, to 37,107 or 7.8% in 1966, to 44,321 or 7.7% in 1976, to 56,001 or 7.8% in 1986, then decreased to 54,323 or 7.0% in 1996, then 52,505 or 6.3% in 2007 and 50,925 or 5.8% in 2017. The decrease is due to 1987 military coup to curtail perceived Indian dominance over natives. This caused an exodus of Indians from the Islands towards Australia and New Zealand, some of whom were Muslims. The 2007 census also showed that 16.3% (almost one sixth) of Indians are Muslim, and 97.2% of all Muslims are Indians. Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will remain constant; then the Muslim population is expected to remain less than 70,000 throughout this century.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Fiji

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.