Islam in Macao: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Macao

It is a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of Chinasince 1999, when it was returned by Portugal after occupying it since1557. Originally it consisted of Macao Peninsula dropping frommainland China and two islands below it named Taipa and Coloane.However, Macao is constantly growing through land claimed from sea,so the islands of Taipa and Coloane are now connected by COTAIreclamation area and other man-made islands to the east have beendeveloped. Thus, Macau has increased its sq km size from ten in 1930, tofifteen in 1980 to 33 in 2020.

Muslims arrived here through trade before the Ming Dynasty in thefourteenth century, but there is no record on their numbers. The first andonly mosque was erected in 1880 and the Islamic Association of Macaowas founded in 1935, which is in close tie with Muslims in nearby HongKong. The number of Muslims remained low throughout the twentiethcentury and was recorded as 117 or 0.05% in 1970 census, which was theonly one to collect information on Muslims. Based on nationality, mainlyMalaysia and Indonesia, the number increased to around 500 or 0.1% bythe end of the twentieth century. According to World Values Survey(WVS), the percentage of Muslims was 0.2% in 2019.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims increases by onetenth of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to exceed 4,000 or 0.5% by 2050 and 10,000 or 1.0% by 2100.