Islam by country · Europe
Islam in Ireland: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Ireland, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Ireland in the interactive map
History of Islam in Ireland
The Republic of Ireland gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1922 and has an area of 70,273 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 4.4.6. Historical census data show that the Muslim population increased from none in 1861 to two in 1871 to six in 1901 and seven in 1911. Thus, no noticeable presence of Muslims existed until the 1950s. Accordingly, as shown in Table 4.4.6, the estimate of the Muslim population increased to 2,000 or 0.1% in 1971, while EVS put it at 0.11% in 1981.
The Muslim population increased sharply in the 1990s and 2000s as a result of the Irish economic boom and asylum seekers from diverse Muslim countries. Consequently, later censuses showed that the Muslim population quintupled from 4,000 or 0.1% in 1991, to 19,000 or 0.5% in 2002, then doubled to 33,000 or 0.8% in 2006, then increased by half to 49,000 or 1.1% in 2011 and 63,000 or 1.4% in 2016. Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by half of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 0.2 million or 3.0% by 2050 and 0.3 million or 5.5% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Ireland
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 | 3,222 | 0.032 | 0.00% |
| 2000 | 3,742 | 18.71 | 0.50% |
| 2100 | 5,726 | 314.9 | 5.50% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.