Islam by country · Asia
Islam in Kuwait: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Kuwait, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Kuwait in the interactive map
History of Islam in Kuwait
The State of Kuwait’s area is 17,818 sq km and its map is presented inFigure 2.3.4. It was occupied by the British in 1899 and gained itsindependence from the UK in 1961. In 1922, the entire population wasMuslim, which decreased to 98.8% in 1949. The first census in thiscountry was conducted in 1957, however, after the 1980 censusinformation on religious affiliation were not published. The publisheddata show a constant decrease in the percentage of the Muslimpopulation. This is due to the discovery of Oil and the subsequentimport of foreign workers, some of which are non-Muslim. As shown inTable 2.3.4, the available census data show an increase in number butdecrease in percentage of the Muslim population from 0.19 million or94.4% in 1957, to 0.44 million or 94.1% in 1965, to 0.94 million or 95.0% in1975, to 1.24 million or 91.5% in 1980 and 3.44 million or 74.4% in 2018.
Thus, assuming that this percentage remains constant; then theMuslim population is expected to increase to 3.8 million by 2050 butdecrease to 3.6 million by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Kuwait
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 | 97.00 | 97.00 | 100.00% |
| 2000 | 1,906 | 1,418 | 74.37% |
| 2100 | 4,895 | 3,641 | 74.37% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.