Islam in São Tomé & Príncipe: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in São Tomé & Príncipe

The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe was uninhabited when it was discovered by the Portuguese in 1470. Consequently, the Portuguese occupied São Tomé in 1493 and Príncipe in 1500. The Islands gained their independence from Portugal in 1975. The country has an area of 1,001 sq km, consisting of the two main islands of São Tomé (859 sq km) with over 95% of the population and where the capital São Tomé is located and Príncipe (142 sq km), and six much smaller islands.

Islam entered here after independence with emigrants from nearby Cameroon and Nigeria. Hence, based on census data, the Muslim population increased from none in 1970 to 51 or 0.04% in 1991. According to a 2009 DHS, the numbers increased to 64 or 0.04%.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will remain fixed; then the Muslim population is expected to remain under 300 for the rest of this century.

Historical Muslim population dataset for São Tomé & Príncipe

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.