Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Zimbabwe: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Zimbabwe, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Zimbabwe in the interactive map
History of Islam in Zimbabwe
The Republic of Zimbabwe has an area of 390,757 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.5.11. It was occupied by the British in 1888 and gained its independence from the UK in 1980 when it changed its name from Southern Rhodesia. Islam entered the eastern parts in the twelfth century with the influence of the Kilwa Sultanate and trade. In 1890, Muslims from Malawi settled here to work on farms and mines for the British. The Muslim population was estimated in 1982 at 62,000 or 0.8% of the total population. According to DHS survey data, the percentage of Muslims was 0.86% in 1999, 0.88% in 2006, 0.53% in 2011 and 0.56% in 2015.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by a tenth of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to near quarter of a million or 0.9% by 2050 and half a million or 1.4% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Zimbabwe
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.
| Year | Total population (thousands) | Muslim population (thousands) | Muslim share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 1,422 | 0.427 | 0.03% |
| 2000 | 11,791 | 101.4 | 0.86% |
| 2100 | 35,618 | 498.6 | 1.40% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.