Islam in Slovakia: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Slovakia

After conquering Budapest, Hungary in 1529, the Muslim Ottomans besieged Bratislava, the current capital of Slovakia, but were unable to conquer it. They captured Nitra (Southwest) in 1663, but lost it by 1685, after losing the Battle for Vienna in 1683. Currently, the Slovak Republic has an area of 49,035 sq km

The Hungarian census recorded no Muslims in 1850 and 1880, two Muslims in 1870 (one in Zólyom and one in Bars) and five Muslims in 1910 (one in Gomor and four in Szepes). The 1921 Czechoslovak census indicated the presence of 185 Muslims, who we assume lived in the capital Prague, which is now the capital of the Czech Republic. Censuses inquiring on religious affiliation of the population were held every decade since 1991. Accordingly, the Muslim population increased from 180 or 0.00% in 1991, to 1,212 or 0.02% in 2001, to 1,935 or 0.04% in 2011 and 3,862 or 0.07% in 2021.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by 0.02 of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 6,000 or 0.1% by 2050 and 8,000 or 0.2% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Slovakia

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.