Islam in Tonga: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Tonga

The Kingdom of Tonga was occupied by the British in 1900 and gained its independence from the UK in 1970 and its map is presented in Figure 6.4.7. It has a total area of 749 sq km, comprising 176 islands scattered over 0.7 million sq km of the South Pacific Ocean, and only 52 of these islands are inhabited. There are four island groups, the largest of which is Tongatapu (260 sq km) with almost three-quarter of the total population and the capital Nuku’alofa and where until 2011 all the Muslim population lived. Then Vava'u (138 sq km) with 14% of the population and four Muslims as of 2021 living in its capital Neiafu. The other groups have no Muslims per 2021 census and before. These are Ha’apai (109 sq km) and ‘Eua (87 sq km), with 5% of the total population each, and Ongo Niua (72 sq km) with only 1% of the total population.

According to census data as summarized in Table 6.4.7, the Muslim population increased from none in 1911, to 35 or 0.04% in 1996, to 47 or 0.05% in 2006, but decreased to 24 or 0.02% in 2011, then increased to sixty or 0.06% 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 150 or 0.1% by 2050 and 300 or 0.2% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Tonga

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.