Islam by country · Americas
Islam in Saint Kitts & Nevis: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Saint Kitts & Nevis, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Saint Kitts & Nevis in the interactive map
History of Islam in Saint Kitts & Nevis
The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis was conquered by the British in 1623 and gained its independence from the UK in 1983. It has an area of 261 sq km comprising two islands: Saint Kitts also known more formally as Saint Christopher (168 sq km with 80% of the population) and Nevis (93 sq km), in a shape of exclamation mark! A map of these islands is presented in Figure 5.1.6. Muslims started migrating in 1970s, most of whom are medical students. According to census data as shown in Table 5.3.6, the Muslim population has increased from none in 1970 and before, to seven or 0.02% in 1980 to 45 or 0.11% in 1991, to 129 or 0.28% in 2001, to 244 or 0.5% in 2011. About a third of the Muslims population (82) lives in the Island of Nevis, where they constitute 0.7% of the population.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by a fifth of a percentage point each decade; then the Muslim population is expected to remain less than one thousand throughout this century, reaching 1.3% of the total population by 2050 and 2.3% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Saint Kitts & Nevis
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 | 42.56 | 0.000 | 0.00% |
| 2000 | 45.13 | 0.131 | 0.29% |
| 2100 | 36.04 | 0.829 | 2.30% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.