Islam in Northern Mariana Islands: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Northern Mariana Islands

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands was established in 1976 in union with the United States of America. The islands were under Spanish control until 1899, when Germany purchased them and remained under their control until 1914, when Japan took them over and remained there until 1944m when the US conquered them and remain under its control since then.

The islands have a total area of 457 sq km; comprising fifteen islands only three are inhabited: Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. The largest of the islands are Saipan (115 sq km), where the capital Saipan is located and about 90% of the population live, Tinian (101 sq km), Rota (85 sq km), Pagan (47 sq km), Agrihan (44 sq km), and Anatahan (31 sq km).

In 1907, the Muslim population consisted of ten Malays, or 0.02% of the total population. The censuses since 1980 included ethnic data on Bangladeshis which is taken here as an estimate of the Muslim population in the Islands. Accordingly, the Muslim population in the Islands increased from three or 0.02% in 1980, to 28 or 0.06% in 1990, to 459 or 0.78% in 1995, to 897 or 1.30% in 2000, but dropped to 501 or 0.9% in 2010, then increased to 845 or 1.8% in 2020.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by half of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to increase to near 2,000 or 3.5% in 2050 and 2,500 or 5% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Northern Mariana Islands

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.