Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Somalia: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Somalia, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Somalia in the interactive map
History of Islam in Somalia
The Federal Republic of Somalia has a total area of 637,657 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.3.11. The current land occupied by Somalia used to consist of Italian Somaliland (southern two-thirds) and British Somaliland (northern third). Both parts were occupied in 1888, then Britain withdrew from British Somaliland in 1960 to allow its protectorate to join with Italian Somaliland and form the new nation of Somalia. The Italian census of 1931 recorded 1,018,412 Muslims, or 99.7% of the total population in the Italian occupied lands, which had two-thirds of the population. No other reliable statistics exist with regard to religious distribution of the population, but many sources assume that the entire population is Muslim. In 1991, the Somali government had collapsed, and the country entered a civil war. Concurrently, the lands of former British Somaliland, was declared the Republic of Somaliland. It remains independent but internationally unrecognized.
Assuming that the percentage of Muslims will remain at 99.7%, then, as summarized in Table 3.3.11, the Muslim population will increase to 36 million by 2050 and to 66 million by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Somalia
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 | 1,653 | 1,648 | 99.69% |
| 2000 | 8,546 | 8,520 | 99.69% |
| 2100 | 66,175 | 65,970 | 99.69% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.