Islam by country · Asia
Islam in Korea, South: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Korea, South, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Korea, South in the interactive map
History of Islam in Korea, South
The Republic of Korea has an area of 99,720 sq km and its map ispresented in Figure 2.6.5. There were ninety Muslim refugees in Seoul in1935. However, the seeds of Islam here started with Turkish troops whowere stationed here following the Korean War (1950-1953) as part of the United Nations peace keeping force. Thus, estimates for the Muslimpopulation increased from 200 in 1955, to 3,000 or 0.01% in 1970, to15,000 or 0.04% in 1980, to 35,000 or 0.1% in 1990.
According to the World Values Survey (WVS), the percentage ofMuslims was 0.21% in 1982, 0.08% in 1996, 0.17% in 2001, 0.08% in 2005and 0.08% in 2010. Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims willcontinue to increase by 0.01 of a percentage point per decade; then theMuslim population is expected increase to 55,000 or 0.1% in 2050 butdecrease to 41,000 or 0.2% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Korea, South
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 | 9,896 | 0.000 | 0.00% |
| 2000 | 46,650 | 37.32 | 0.08% |
| 2100 | 24,244 | 41.21 | 0.17% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.