Islam by country · Americas
Islam in Paraguay: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Paraguay, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Paraguay in the interactive map
History of Islam in Paraguay
The Republic of Paraguay has an area of 406,752 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 5.4.10. It was conquered by Spain in 1537, when its capital Asunción was founded, and gained its independence in 1811. In 1908, the Muslim population consisted of 300 individuals or 0.04% who arrived from the Ottoman Empire. The number of Muslims decreased to 100 or 0.01% in 1920, and then increased to 1,000 or 0.04% in 1972, to 1,000 or 0.03% in 1982. According to census data, the Muslim population ten years and over decreased from 1,200 or 0.04% in 1992 to 872 or 0.02% in 2002.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will remain fixed; then the Muslim population is expected to remain less than 2,000 throughout this century.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Paraguay
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.
| Year | Total population (thousands) | Muslim population (thousands) | Muslim share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 440.0 | 0.176 | 0.04% |
| 2000 | 5,076 | 1.02 | 0.02% |
| 2100 | 8,620 | 1.72 | 0.02% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.