The UK is home to more than three million Muslims for the first time ever, new figures from the Office of National Statistics show.
The number in the country has risen sharply in just over a decade as a result of immigration and high birth rates. However, it still only represents around 5 per cent of the country’s population.
In some parts of London, close to half the population are now Muslims, according to detailed analysis by the Office for National Statistics obtained by The Mail on Sunday. On current trends they will be the majority in those areas within a decade.
Half of those following Islam in England and Wales were born abroad while more are under ten years old than in any other age group, indicating their numbers will grow still further in generations to come.
New figures published for the first time this month show that there are 3,114,992 Muslims across Great Britain, and of those slightly more than half (1,554,022) were born overseas.
The vast majority – 1,484,060 – came from outside the European Union. A detailed breakdown obtained by the newspaper shows that Muslims are much younger than the general population. One in four Muslims in England and Wales – 746,000 – is aged under ten. In the whole country, the proportion is about one in seven.
In 1991 the number of Muslims in the UK stood at just under one million – 950,000 – representing only 1.9 per cent of the total. At the time of the next Census a decade later, there were 1,546,626 Muslims in the country – three per cent of the total.
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But by 2011, the Muslim population of England and Wales was 2,706,066 – representing 4.8 per cent of the overall number.
The ONS has also identified eight areas around the country where Muslims make up a significant number of local residents.
In the East London borough of Tower Hamlets the proportion stood at 45.6 per cent in 2014, while in neighbouring Newham it is 40.8.
Muslims account for 29 per cent of the population in Blackburn; 26 per cent in Slough; 25.7 per cent in Luton; 23 per cent in Birmingham; 20 per cent in Leicester; and 18 per cent in Manchester.
While the Daily Mail chose the interpret the figures in the context of counter terrorism, radicalisation and immigration a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said: “This statistic highlights the diversity in modern Britain, and the need that this is reflected in all spheres of life, from top management opportunities to political representation.”
