Islam in Thailand: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand has an area of 513,120 sq km and its map ispresented in Figure 2.4.9. It avoided European colonization and changedits name from Siam in 1939. Islam entered here through the MalayPeninsula, where it still largely Muslim. About two-thirds of Thailand’sMuslims are Malay who lives in Thailand’s part of the Malay Peninsula.

In 1921 the Muslim population was estimated at 0.30 million or 3.3%of the total population. Based on census data and as shown in Table2.4.9, the Muslim population increased from 0.50 million or 4.3% in 1929,to 0.63 million or 4.3% in 1937, to 0.67 million or 3.8% in 1947, to 1.03million or 3.9% in 1960, to 1.33 million or 3.9% in 1970, to 1.72 million or3.8% in 1980, to 2.25 million or 4.1% in 1990, to 2.78 million or 4.6% in2000, to 3.26 million or 4.9% in 2010. The 2000 census showed that fivesixths (83%) of the Thai Muslim population live in the Southern Region,which is the Thai’s part of the Malay Peninsula. This percentage droppedto 78% in 2010. The Muslim population makes up nearly a third (29%) ofthe total population of the Southern Region according to the 2010 and2000 censuses.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims continues to increaseby half of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population isexpected to remain around 4.5 million throughout the second half of thiscentury, reaching 7% of the total population by 2050 and 9.5% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Thailand

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.