Islam in United Arab Emirates: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in United Arab Emirates

It is a union of seven Emirates that was formed in 1971: Abu Dhabi,Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al Khaimah (joined in 1972), Sharjah, andUmm al Quwain. The total area of this union is 83,600 sq km and its mapis presented in Figure 2.3.11. The first census was conducted in 1968, andsubsequent censuses show a substantial decrease in the percentage of theMuslim population from 100% before 1947, to 0.17 million or 96.1% in1968, to 3.12 million or 76% in 2005. Like other Gulf countries, thisdecrease is due to the economic boom caused by the discovery of Oil,which resulted in the substantial import of foreign workers, many ofwhom were non-Muslim. Assuming the percentage of Muslims remainsconstant at 76%; the Muslim population is expected to get close to ninemillion by 2050 and eleven million by 2100

Historical Muslim population dataset for United Arab Emirates

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.