Islam in Lesotho: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Lesotho

The Kingdom of Lesotho is an enclave in the Republic of South Africa and has an area of 30,355 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.5.4. It was occupied by the British in 1870 and gained its independence from the UK in 1966, when it changed its name from Basutoland. Islam arrived here in towards the end of the nineteenth century with Indian traders and workers that were brought by the British. The first mosque was erected during the first decade of the twentieth century.

Based on census data, the Muslim population increased from none in 1891, to 119 or 0.03% in 1911, to 220 or 0.04% in 1946, to 331 or 0.05% in 1956. According to ABS survey data, the percentage of Muslims was 0.25% in 2003, 0.08% in 2006, 0.17% in 2012 and 0.08% in 2015.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by 0.02 of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 5,000 or 0.2% by 2050 and 8,000 or 0.3% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Lesotho

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.