Islam in Trinidad & Tobago: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Trinidad & Tobago

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has a total area of 5,128 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 5.1.10. It consists of two main islands: Trinidad (4,768 sq km with 96% of the population) and Tobago (300 sq km with 4% of the population) and over a score of smaller uninhabited islands. The British conquered Trinidad in 1797 and Tobago in 1802 and they both gained their independence from the UK in 1962. Currently, the islands have the third largest percentage of Muslims in the Americas, after Suriname and Guyana. The first Muslims were indenture labor brought by the British from India in 1844. Inquiry on religious adherence in the national census is available since 1891. Censuses since 1851 also include ethnic affiliation. In 1891, almost all Muslims arrived from India, and made little more than 12% of the total East Indian population. We use this percentage to get an estimate of the Muslim population prior to 1891.

Thus, there were no Muslims in the islands in 1844, when the first census was conducted. Soon after, thousands of indentured laborers were brought from India. Accordingly, the Muslim population increased from 479 or 0.6% in 1851, to 1,619 or 1.6% in 1861, to 3,291 or 2.6% in 1871, to 5,858 or 3.4% in 1881, to 8,638 or 4.0% in 1891, to 11,478 or 3.8% in 1901, to 14,957 or 4.5% in 1911, to 17,698 or 4.9% in 1921, to 20,992 or 5.1% in 1931, to 32,615 or 5.9% in 1946, to 49,736 or 6.0% in 1960, to 58,271 or 6.3% in 1970, to 63,333 or 6.1% in 1980, to 65,732 or 5.9% in 1990, then decreased slightly to 64,648 or 5.9% in 2000, then increased slightly to 65,705 or 5.6% in 2011.

The vast majority of the Muslim population lives in the Island of Trinidad. According to census data and as shown in Table 5.1.10b, the number of Muslims in Tobago increased from none in 1901, to 65 or 0.2% in 1960, to 98 or 0.3% in 1970, to 163 or 0.3% in 1990, to 233 or 0.5% in 2000, to 345 or 0.6% in 2011.

Thus, following census data and assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to decrease by 0.05 of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 77,000 or 5.2% by 2050 and 50,000 or 4.7% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Trinidad & Tobago

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.