Islam in Norway: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Norway

The Kingdom of Norway has an area of 385,186 sq km including the archipelago of Svalbard and the island of Jan Mayen. Svalbard has an area of 61,022 sq km including 36,500 sq km of glaciers. Its population constantly decreased from its peak of 4,012 in 1982, to 3,017 in 1993, to 2,379 in 2019. No Muslims have lived so far in Svalbard. Jan Mayen has a total area of 377 sq km including 125 sq km of glaciers and is almost uninhabited. Maps of the mainland of Norway, Svalbard and Jan Mayen are presented in Figures 4.4.9a, 4.4.9b and 4.4.9c, respectively.

Muslims started migrating to Norway in the 1960s as the country needed more labor workforce. Based on place of birth, until 1970 the Muslim population remained at 0.00% of the total population and comprised of few Turks. Then in 1970, there were 244 born in Turkiye, 407 born in Morocco and 170 born in Pakistan; bringing the total number of Muslims to 821 or 0.02% of the total population. Since 1969, Statistics Norway collects annual information on the number of religious affiliates in the country. This shows an increase of the Muslim population from 1,006 or 0.02% in 1980, to 8,214 or 0.2% in 1985, to 19,189 or 0.5% in 1990, to 40,550 or 0.9% in 1995, to 56,458 or 1.3% in 2000, to 76,621 or 1.7% in 2005, to 98,953 or 2.0% in 2010, to 141,027 or 2.7% in 2015 and 182,826 or 3.4% in 2020. A summary of the data is provided in Table 4.4.9a. Over 80% of the Muslim population in Norway used to live in the capital Oslo in 2000, but this percentage is reduced to 47% in 2006 and 37% in 2018. Per county distribution of the Muslim population in Norway since 2000 is presented in Table 4.4.9b. The number of Muslims increased in the 1990s due to the incoming of refugees from Bosnia and Somalia, and in the 2000s due to refugees from Iraq.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by one percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to get close to half a million or 6% by 2050 and one million or 11% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Norway

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.