Islam in Finland: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Finland

Muslims started migrating to Finland after it was conquered by the Russian Empire in 1809. They were merchant Tatars from Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. Finland gained its independence in 1917, and recognized Islam as a religion in 1925. Currently, the Republic of Finland has an area of 338,145 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 4.4.3. The area includes the autonomous region of Åland Islands with area 13,517 sq km.

Based on census data, the Muslim population increased from none in the nineteenth century to 262 or 0.01% in 1930. Subsequent censuses show that the Muslim population remained at 0.02% between 1934 and 2000. However, largely due to immigration, the Muslim population increased from 1,000 or 0.02% in 2000, to 4,000 or 0.1% in 2005, to 9,000 or 0.2% in 2010, to 13,000 or 0.2% in 2015, to 19,000 or 0.3% in 2020 and 21,000 or 0.4% in 2021. Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by a fifth of a percentage point each decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 55,000 or 1.0% by 2050 and 100,000 or 2.0% by 2100.

These figures include only those persons, who are members of Islamic congregations which are registered in Finland. Therefore, actual number might be bigger. The information is gathered by Statistics Finland on religion from Population Register Centre and a person must be a member of a congregation registered in Finland in order to have religion included in these statistics.

The information on religious community does not represent foreigners accurately. Not all their religious communities are included in the register of the National Board of Patents and Registration and not all those practicing a religion belong to parishes. At the end of 2013, 84% of foreign-language speakers did not belong to any registered religious community according to the Population Information System. Since most Muslims in Finland are expected to have a foreign background, this shows a major underestimate of the Muslim population. The recorded number of people

• born in a Muslim-majority country increased from 2,937 or 0.06% in 1990, to 10,945 or 0.2% in 1995, to 16,842 or 0.3% in 2000, to 25,110 or 0.5% in 2005, to 38,220 or 0.7% in 2010, to 55,812 or 1.3% in 2015, to 115,384 or 2.1% in 2020.
• born or one of their parents was born in a Muslim-majority country increased from 2,739 or 0.05% in 1990, to 11,755 or 0.2% in 1995, to 20,158 or 0.4% in 2000, to 31,618 or 0.6% in 2005, to 49,286 or 0.9% in 2010, to 73,759 or 1.3% in 2015, to 111,929 or 2.0% in 2020.

These numbers are up to seven times the estimated number of Muslims

Historical Muslim population dataset for Finland

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.