Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Liberia: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Liberia, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Liberia in the interactive map
History of Islam in Liberia
The Republic of Liberia has an area of 111,369 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.2.9a. It was established in 1847 by the Americans as a nation of freed black slaves from the USA. Islam entered here in the sixteenth century through Mali Kingdom. By 1921 the Muslim population was estimated at 200,000 or 11.8% of the total population. Muslim majority ethnic groups are Gola, Vai, Mandingo and Mende. Their total number increased from 0.11 million or 10.9% in 1962 to 0.18 million or 12.3% in 1974. These numbers are used here to estimate the number of Muslims based on ethnic affiliation. Later censuses indicate that the Muslim population increased from 0.29 million or 13.8% in 1984, to 0.42 million or 12.2% in 2008. The decrease in percentage may be due to the civil war that took place between 1989 and 1996, then between 1999 and 2003.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will remain fixed; then the Muslim population is expected to reach one million by 2050 and close to two million by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Liberia
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 | 641.0 | 75.38 | 11.76% |
| 2000 | 2,855 | 348.9 | 12.22% |
| 2100 | 13,207 | 1,614 | 12.22% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.