Population by religion 2014 to 2024

Release date:
3 September 2024

FOI reference: FOI-2024-2198

You asked

I was wondering if you could please provide me with the following data at your earliest convenience :

How many muslims in the UK (the exact number AND the percentage of population) for each year between 2014 & 2024?

How many non-muslims (exact number and percentage of population) for each year between 2014-2024?

And finally, the overall population for each year between 2014-2024?

We said

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. 

We can provide annual population estimates for the overall population. The most recent mid-year estimates for the UK are from 2022. 

Data can be downloaded from the Office for National Statistics website here: Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) 

Please see the file labelled Mid-2011 to mid-2022 edition of this dataset. 

These estimates are broken down by sex and age, but not by religion. For the number of Muslims, we can provide census data, but this is decennial, not annual data. 

Also, our data is for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland carry out their own census, their contact details are provided further below. 

Please see attached the following datasets for the population of England and Wales by religion.  

  • 2021 Census: TS030 - Religion 

  • 2011 Census: KS209EW - Religion 

This data was downloaded from the Nomis website www.nomisweb.co.uk, which is a service run by Durham University on behalf of the Office for National Statistics. 

For data from Scotland and Northern Ireland, please contact their statistical offices directly. 

NATIONAL RECORDS OF SCOTLAND  

Tel:    0131 3144299  

Email: statisticscustomerservices@nrscotland.gov.uk  

Website: www.nrscotland.gov.uk

NORTHERN IRELAND STATISTICS & RESEARCH AGENCY 

Tel:   02890 255156 

Email: census@nisra.gov.uk  

Website: http://www.nisra.gov.uk/census 

If you need anything else, please do not hesitate to contact us at pop.info@ons.gov.uk.

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