Islam in Luxembourg: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Luxembourg

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has an area of 2,586 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 4.3.5. Census data show that the number of adherents to religions; other than Christianity and Judaism, were eight or 0.00% in 1871 and 1905.

Censuses in Luxembourg gathered information on the nationality of foreign citizens living in the country. Based on these numbers the Muslim population increased from 54 (Turks) or 0.02% in 1970, to 291 (147 Turks, 74 Moroccans, 70 Tunisians) or 0.1% in 1981, to 513 (190 Turks, 120 Moroccans, 109 Tunisians, 94 Algerians) or 0.1% in 1991. A dramatic increase in the number of Muslims happened afterwards, including an influx of refugees from Bosnia and Kosovo following the breakup of former Yugoslavia. By 2011, numbers of nationals from overwhelmingly Muslim majority countries exceeded 6,000, with over a third from Bosnia and a fourth from Kosovo. According to the European Values Survey (EVS), the percentage of Muslims was 1.00% in 1999 and 3.11% in 2008.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by half of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 40,000 or 5.5% by 2050 and 70,000 or 8% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Luxembourg

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.