Islam in Iceland: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Iceland

The Republic of Iceland has an area of 103,000 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 4.4.5. Historically, the island belonged to Denmark, from which Iceland gained its independence in 1944. The 1973 Census recorded the presence of 14 Moroccans, which we use as an estimate of the Muslim population in Iceland in 1973, making 0.01% of the total population.

Statistics Iceland collects annual information on the number of religious affiliates in the country. The Icelandic Muslim Association, the Islamic Cultural Centre in Iceland and the Islamic Foundation of Iceland were founded in 1997, 2009 and 2017, respectively. Thus, the number of Muslims started being recorded in 1997. Most of the Muslim population resides in the capital Reykjavík.

The number of Muslims increased from 14 or 0.01% of the total population in 1973 (based on citizenship data), to 74 or 0.03% in 1997, to 134 or 0.05% in 2000, to 318 or 0.1% in 2005, to 591 or 0.2% in 2010, to 875 or 0.3% in 2015, then 1,281 or 0.4% in 2020 and 1,447 or 0.4% in 2021.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by a fifth of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 4,000 or 1% by 2050 and 7,000 or 2% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Iceland

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.