Islam in New Caledonia: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in New Caledonia

The Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies is a territorial collectivity of France, which conquered it in 1853. It has an area of 18,576 sq km, comprising the main island or Grand Terre (16,372 sq km), Lifou (1,197 sq km), Maré (642 sq km), l’Île des Pins or Isle of Pines (152 sq km), Ouvéa (132 sq km), and hundreds of much smaller islands, covering a million sq km

The first Muslims were 116 Algerians who arrived in 1872 as prisoners of war by the French occupying forces in Algeria. They were sent to the penal settlement in Isle of Pines. They were transferred to Ducos in the main island in 1881. By the end of the nineteenth century, their number was reduced to 24, as some were able to return to Algeria.

At the turn of the twentieth century, several Muslims from Java, Indonesia settled here. Their number increased to 1,483 in 1911, to 2,098 in 1921, to 6,000 in 1931, to 8,641 in 1946, but was reduced to 4,070 in 1969 and increased to 7,000 in 2009. In the 1950s, more Muslims settled here from former French colonies, especially Djibouti, due to the growth of the nickel industry. However, over 80% of the Muslim population are of Malay decent (mainly Java).

Thus, with the absence of official statistics on religious adherence and as shown in Table 6.2.2, estimates for the Muslim population fluctuated from none before 1872 to 116 or 0.2% in 1880, to 24 or 0.04% in 1901, to 1,483 or 2.9% in 1911, to 2,098 or 4.4% in 1921, to 6,000 or 10.5% in 1031, to 8,641 or 13.8% in 1946, to 4,070 or 4.1% in 1969. By 2014, the Association of Muslims of New Caledonia put the estimate at 3,000 or 1% of the total population, of which only 200 to 300 are practicing Muslims. Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will remain constant at 1% of the total population; then the Muslim population is expected to remain around 3,500 throughout the second half of this century.

Historical Muslim population dataset for New Caledonia

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.