FOI/2021/2937
You asked
Please supply how many Muslims there are in UK in 2021. Please supply this information as a percentage also.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the provision of religion statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we do not hold the requested data for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain this data from NRS and NISRA, they can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Our best and most up-to-date, official estimates of the population of England and Wales by religion remains those derived from the 2011 Census. These data are freely available at national and subnational level on the Nomis website.
You may be interested in the following tables:
- The Religion KS209EW table has a breakdown of the population of England and Wales as at census day, 27 March 2011, by 9 religious groupings (or classifications), including Muslim.
You can use the 'View data in browser' panel on the left-hand side of the webpage to select geographic areas, such as 'England and Wales', to view the data for specific areas.
To note, the religion question on the Census is voluntary. So, you may choose to calculate your percentage out of the whole population, "All categories: Religion", or of those people who have specified that they have a religion "Has religion", for example.
- The Religion (detailed) [QS210EW] table has a detailed breakdown of the population of England and Wales as at census day, 27 March 2011, by 59 religious groupings (or classifications).
You may also be interested in the following illustrative estimates by religion. They represent research into what the religious group population might look like between censuses and were produced in response to the need for more frequent updates into the size and characteristics of the population.
Please note:
These datasets are illustrative datasets only, produced as research. They are not National Statistics. The methodology neither fully incorporates nor adjusts for migration in producing its figures. Our best official estimates remain those derived from the 2011 Census.
The Research report on population estimates by ethnic group and religion and the accompanying Population characteristics research tables provide illustrative population estimates at national, regional and local authority level for England and Wales by ethnic group and religion for 2016. To access these data, click on the above link, scroll down to 'Edition in this dataset' and open the xls document entitled 'December 2019 edition of this dataset'. For more information about the methodology used to produce these data, please consult the accompanying Research report.
When accessing any of our files, please read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them.
If you have any further enquiries about your request, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at EILR@ons.gov.uk.