Islam by country · Americas
Islam in French Guiana: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in French Guiana, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open French Guiana in the interactive map
History of Islam in French Guiana
It is an overseas department of France that it acquired in 1667 and has a total area of 83,534 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 5.4.8. The slavery was abolished in 1848, thus the French tried to imitate the British indentured labor system. Hence, in 1850, Indians, Chinese, Malay, and Africans were brought to work on Sugarcane plantations, among whom were many Muslims. France also used the territory as a prison between 1852 and 1951, including its notorious Devil’s Island prison. Many Muslim prisoners of war who fought the French occupation in Morocco and Algeria were sent to prisons here. Thus, by 1907, the Muslim population reached 1,570 or 6.5% of the total population, all but 482 were prisoners. The Muslim population increased to 2,500 or 9.0% in 1951, to 4,000 in 1974 and 1982, or 7.3% and 5.5%, respectively. The Muslim population however, continued to decrease since then to 1,000 or 0.6% in 1999, to 750 or 0.3% in 2008, but increased to 2,000 or 0.7% in 2022.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by one tenth of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 5,000 or 1% by 2050 and 14,000 or 1.5% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for French Guiana
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 | 20.00 | 1.31 | 6.54% |
| 2000 | 160.9 | 1.03 | 0.64% |
| 2100 | 925.7 | 13.89 | 1.50% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.