Islam in Lithuania: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Lithuania

The Republic of Lithuania gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and has an area of 65,300 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 4.2.4. As the medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded south in Europe from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, it occupied lands where some Muslim Tatar lived, who came with the Golden Horde Empire. Some Tatar Muslims moved north to the lands of current Lithuania. Under the rule of Grand Duke Vytautas (reigned 1392 to 1430), more Muslim Tatars were welcomed in the north. They remained welcomed there until the Russian occupation towards the end of the eighteenth century.

The 1897 Russian Empire census indicated that the Muslim population was 4,900 or 0.2% of the total population of Latvia in its current borders. This estimate is based on the data from the Governorates of Kovno, the Uyezds of Vilensky, Sventsiansky and Troksky of Vilna Governorate, which is split with Belarus, and the Uyezds of Vladislavovsky, Volkovyshsky, Kalvariysky and Mariampolsky of Suvalki Governortae which is split with Poland.

The 1923 Census recorded 1,107 Muslims or 0.05% of the total population. There were 973 Tatars of whom 961 were Muslim, and three Turks, all Christian. Other Muslims were 117 ethnic Lithuanian, twelve ethnic Polish and two ethnic Russian.

The Muslim population increased because of the Soviet occupation from 1944 to 1991. The Soviets carried out censuses since 1959 that collected ethnic affiliation demography of the population. The top ten Muslim ethnicities in Lithuania from largest in number are Tatar, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh, Bashkir, Lezghin, Chechen, Tajik, Turkmen and Kyrgyz. The number of members of each of these ethnicities since 1959 is provided in Table 4.2.4a. Based on ethnic censuses, the Muslim population increased to 4,470 or 0.16% in 1959, to 4,911 or 0.16% in 1970, to 8,651 or 0.26% in 1979 and peaked at 10,055 or 0.27% in 1989, just before the breakup of the Soviet Union. According to the 2001 census which inquired on religious adherence, after the independence of Lithuania from the Soviet Union in 1991, the Muslim population dropped to 2,860 or 0.09% in 2001. This census also showed that only 1,679 or 51.9% of Tatars, and 362 or 45.9% of Azeris are Muslim. The ethnic affiliation of the rest of Muslims was 185 Lithuanian, 74 Russians, and the rest are from other ethnicities. The number of Muslims decreased to 2,727 or 0.1% in 2011 and 2,165 or 0.1% in 2021.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by 0.01 of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to remain around 3,000 or less than 0.2% of the total population throughout this century.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Lithuania

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.