Islam in Vietnam: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Vietnam

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has an area of 331,210 sq km and itsmap is presented in Figure 2.4.11. It was occupied by France between1858 and 1884 and became part of French Indochina in 1887. The Frenchwere expelled in 1954, but the country was split between communistnorth and American backed south. This led to decades of war betweenSoviet and Chinese backed North, and the American backed south,culminated by victory of the north and unification of the country in 1975.

About two-thirds of Muslims here are ethnic Cham, whose ancestorsembraced Islam between eleventh and thirteenth centuries. As shown inTable 2.4.11, estimate of the Muslim population based on ethnic Malayand Cham increased from 21,000 or 0.1% in 1921, to 23,000 or 0.1% in1931, to 31,000 or 0.2% in 1936. The 1999 census included for the firsttime a question about religious affiliation. The census data show thatalmost all the Muslim population lives in the southernmost provinces ofSoutheast and Mekong River Delta, with over 80% living in the former.Based on census data, the Muslim population increased from 63,000 or0.1% in 1999 to 75,000 or 0.1% in 2009 but decreased to 71,000 or 0.1% in2019.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue toincrease by 0.01 of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslimpopulation is expected to reach 0.11 million or 0.10% by 2050 and 0.14million or 0.15% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Vietnam

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.