Islam in Indonesia: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia was conquered by the Dutch in theseventeenth century, was referred to as Dutch East Indies, and gained itsindependence from the Netherlands in 1949. It has an area of 1,904,569 sqkm consisting of 17,508 islands, about a third (6,000) of which areinhabited. The most populous island is Java, with area 132,187 sq km,where the capital Jakarta is located and more than half of the population.The second most populous island is Sumatra, with area 473,481 sq km,and over a fifth of the population. Sumatra is also the sixth largest islandin the world. The third most populous island is Sulawesi (174,600 sq km)with 7% of the population. These three islands include over 86% of thetotal population.

The Indonesian archipelago includes the second and third largestislands in the world: New Guinea (785,753 sq km) and Borneo (748,168sq km). The former is split with Papua New Guinea and includes lessthan 2% of the Indonesian population. Almost a third of Borneo is sharedwith Malaysia and Brunei and includes less than 6% of the Indonesianpopulation. The Indonesian portion of Borneo is called Kalimantan.

The largest of the remaining islands is Timor (30,777 sq km), which issplit in half between Indonesia and East Timor. Then Halmahera (17,780sq km), Seram (17,100 sq km), Sumbawa (15,448 sq km), Flores (13,540 sqkm), Bangka (11,910 sq km), Pulau Yos Sudarso (11,742 sq km), Sumba(11,153 sq km), Buru (9,505 sq km), Bali (5,633 sq km), Nias (5,121 sqkm), Lombok (4,725 sq km), Belitung (4,800 sq km), Madura (4,250 sqkm) with 2% of the population, Butung (4,200 sq km), and Siberut (4,030sq km).

Islam entered this archipelago through Arab traders includingprophet’s companions as early as 54H/674AD in the Island of Sumatra.However, masse conversion to Islam did not start until the eleventhcentury. The thirteenth century saw the establishment of MuslimSultanates including Ternate in 1257. By the sixteenth century Islambecame the dominant religion in this region and most of its territorybecame under Muslim control. Currently, Indonesia is the mostpopulous majority Muslim country and has the largest Muslimpopulation than any other country.

The estimates of the Muslim populationincreased from 30 million or 85.9% in 1894, to 34 million or 81.6% in 1905,to 42 million or 85.9% in 1920, to 50 million or 83.2% in 1930. Post-independence censuses show an increase in number but decreased inpercentage from 104 million or 87.5% in 1971, to 129 million or 87.1% in1980, to 143 million or 86.9% in 1985, then continued to increase in bothsince then to 156 million or 87.2% in 1990, to 178 million or 88.2% in 2000,to 200 million or 88.6% in 2005, but dropped in percentage to 207 millionor 87.5% in 2010. Assuming that the percentage of the Muslimpopulation will remain at 88%, then the Muslim population is expectedto reach 279 million by 2050 and 261 million by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Indonesia

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.