Islam in Slovenia: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Slovenia

The Ottoman Empire reached Slovenia in 1566 but did not conquer it, except for the northeastern most Prekmurje region, which was under Ottoman control from 1566 to 1688. It was under Austrian rule from 1797 until 1918 when it joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which became Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. The Republic of Slovenia gained its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and currently has an area of 20,273 sq km

The 1900 Austrian census recorded one Muslim in the lands currently occupied by Slovenia, which was mostly the region of Carniola (Krain) and the southern part of Styria (Steiermark) region, while the previous censuses showed no Muslims in these lands. The 1910 census recorded thirteen Muslims in the city of Koper and two Muslims in the city of Rudolfswert.

The Muslim population in current Slovenia remained at 0.1% or less until 1971, when it increased to 5,000 or 0.3% due to migration from other Yugoslav states for economic reasons. It continued to increase since then to 15,000 or 0.8% in 1981, to 29,000 or 1.9% in 1991, and 47,000 or 3.1% in 2002, doubling in size each decade. In 2011, Slovenia switched to register-based census, which does not collect religious information.

When inferring religious adherence from ethnicity in 1948, 1961, 1971, and 1981, the Albanians and Muslims by nationality were assumed Muslim. The recorded numbers of both ethnicities in censuses since 1948

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by a fifth of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to remain below 0.1 million throughout this century, comprising 4.2% of the total population by 2050 and 5.2% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Slovenia

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.