Source: Pew Research Center
Recent killings in Paris as well as the arrival of hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim refugees in Europe have drawn renewed attention to the continent’s Muslim population. In many European countries, including France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, concerns about growing Muslim communities have led to calls for restrictions on immigration. But just how large is Europe’s Muslim population, and how fast is it growing?
Using the Pew Research Center’s most recent population estimates, here are five facts about the size and makeup of the Muslim population in Europe:
1. Germany and France have the largestMuslim populationsamong European Union member countries. As of 2010, there were 4.8 million Muslims in Germany (5.8% of the country’s population) and 4.7 million Muslims in France (7.5%). In Europe overall, however, Russia’s population of 14 million Muslims (10%) is the largest on the continent.
2. The Muslim share of Europe’s total population has been increasing steadily. In recent decades, the Muslim share of the population throughout Europe grew about 1 percentage point a decade, from 4% in 1990 to 6% in 2010. This pattern is expected to continue through 2030, when Muslims are projected to make up 8% of Europe’s population.
3 .Muslims are younger than other Europeans. In 2010, themedian age of Muslims throughout Europe was 32, eight years younger than the median for all Europeans (40). By contrast, the median age of religiously unaffiliated people in Europe, including atheists, agnostics and those with no religion in particular, was 37. The median age of European Christians was 42.
4. Views of Muslims vary widely among European countries. APew Research survey conducted last spring found that majorities in France Britain and Germany had favorable views of Muslims. Opinion was roughly divided in Spain while negative views prevailed in Italy, Greece and Poland. Views about Muslims are tied to ideology. While 47% of Germans on the political right give Muslims an unfavorable rating, just 20% on the left do so. The gap between left and right is also more than 20 percentage points in France, Italy and Greece. And significant differences are found in Spain and the UK as well.
5 . As of 2010, the European Union was home to about 13 million Muslim immigrants. The foreign-born Muslim population in Germany is primarily made up of Turkish immigrants, but also includes many born in Kosovo, Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Morocco. The roughly 3 million foreign-born Muslims in France are largely from France’s former colonies of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post cited a 2014 Ipsos MORI poll on peoples’ perceptions about the size of the Muslim population in European countries. The reference was deleted because the poll was conducted through an online panel for which the participants are recruited in a way that does not allow us to know each respondent’s chance of being selected.
Categories: Europe, Islam, refugees, The Muslim Times
Ignorance begets defeat and chaos .European politicians never though about what is happening in Europe today.Its only the TIP OF THE ICEBERG>
I was living in Vienna in the 1970’s when l went back in 2009 l cried for what had happened to the beloved Vienna.
The fear or hate mongers or shall we call them Islamophobes always like to stereotype all Muslims or look at the negative elements, rather than focusing on the positives and working from there, collaborating with the moderate Muslims.
I do hope that moderates in all religions would work together to defeat the extremists every where including their own.
Well, the mentioned facts about the Muslim population in Europe remain in force certainly. But only after the Paris attacks Brussels started to raise serious concerns about the challenges of Muslim integration in our European society. Unfortunately it is too late, eh? Today the number of Muslims in the EU countries is over 20 million, and any attempts to shut off Muslim influx here or ‘calls for restrictions on Muslim immigration’ may lead only to radical Islam spreading across Europe! Just now European angry Muslims turn to sexual terrorism in the very Germany or France
http://thefederalist.com/2016/01/11/in-europe-muslim-extremists-turn-to-sexual-terrorism/
And this is just the beginning! So I agree with those who consider that only well-planned assimilation is now a life project for Europe!
There is no doubt that growing waves of migrants is rather dangerous tendency for current Europe. Nobody denies that it leads to dangerously growing migrant chaos, which makes easier to various suspicious people, including various terrorist agents to move to European countries for their dirty and bloody work! Nevertheless, Europeans should not building walls to keep migrants out. They should remember that migration always improved the lives of both migrants and their hosts.
It’s also time for Europe to realize that not we, Muslims, are the main enemy for Europeans now. Terrorism is our common enemy! And we can help each other in the struggle against this evil!
So the sooner Europeans forge a better system for integrating millions of migrants, the better! And everyone will benefit from it as Europeans and Muslim migrants will be able to seize opportunity to make Europe more democratic and prosperous!