Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Libya: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Libya, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Libya in the interactive map
History of Islam in Libya
Libya has a total area of 1,759,540 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.1.4. It was taken by Italy from the Ottoman Empire in 1911 and passed to the United Nations in 1943 after the Italian defeat in WWII. It gained its independence in 1951. It used to consist of Cyrenaica (Eastern half with area 934,934 sq km and a third of the population) and Tripolitania (Western half with area 824,606 and two thirds of the population). It was conquered by Muslims in 21H/642AD under the reign of Caliph Omar bnul Khattab. The Muslim troops were led by the Prophet companion Amr bnul Aass and the territories remained under Muslim control since then.
Based on census data and as shown in Table 3.1.4, the Muslim population continued to decrease in percentage due to the Italian occupation from half million or 95.8% in 1911, to 0.8 million or 94.7% in 1921, to 0.6 million or 90.5% in 1931, to 0.7 million or 88.7% in 1936, to 0.8 million or 85.9% in 1938. The Muslim population continued to increase since then with the Italian departure and subsequent independence to a million or 93.3% in 1948, to 1.5 million or 97.2% in 1964, to 2.1 million or 100% in 1973. According to the World values Survey (WVS), the percentage of Muslims was 97.81% in 2013. Thus, assuming that this percentage remains constant; then the Muslim population is expected to increase to nine million by 2050 but will decrease to eight million by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Libya
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 | 747.0 | 715.3 | 95.76% |
| 2000 | 5,096 | 5,095 | 99.97% |
| 2100 | 8,488 | 8,302 | 97.81% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.