page_title: Islam in the United Kingdom
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Islam in the United Kingdom / Demographics
caption_attribution_description: English: Inside london central mosque.
context_page_description: Islam is the second largest religion in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with results from the United Kingdom 2011 Census giving the UK Muslim population in 2011 as 2,516,000, 4.4% of the total population. The vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom live in England: 2,660,116. 76,737 Muslims live in Scotland, 45,950 in Wales. London has the greatest population of Muslims in the country. The majority of Muslims in United Kingdom adhere to Sunni Islam, while smaller numbers are associated with Shia Islam.
  During the Middle Ages, there was some general cultural exchange between Christendom and the Islamic world, however, there were no Muslims in the British Isles. During the Elizabethan age contacts became more explicit as the Tudors made alliances against Catholic Habsburg Spain, including with Morocco and the Ottoman Empire. As the British Empire grew, particularly in India, Britain came to rule territories with many Muslim inhabitants; some of these, known as the lascars are known to have settled in Britain from the mid-18th century onwards.
context_section_description: The Muslim population of England and Wales has grown consistently since World War II. Sophie Gilliat-Ray attributes the recent growth to "recent immigration, the growing birth rate, some conversion to Islam".
  According to recent projections the Muslim population in the UK in the year 2050 is likely to number around 13 million.
  The top 20 local authorities in England and Wales with the highest percent of Muslims in 2011 were:
  London Borough of Tower Hamlets 34.5% 87,696
  London Borough of Newham 32.0% 98,456
  Blackburn with Darwen 27.4% 38,817
  City of Bradford 24.7% 129,041
  Luton 24.6% 49,991
  London Borough of Redbridge 23.3% 64,999
  Slough 23.3% 32,655
  London Borough of Waltham Forest 21.9% 56,541
  Birmingham 21.8% 234,411
  Leicester 18.6% 61,440
  London Borough of Brent 18.6% 58,036
  City of Westminster 18.3% 40,073
  Metropolitan Borough of Oldham 17.7% 39,879
  Pendle 17.4% 15,579
  London Borough of Enfield 16.7% 52,141
  Manchester 15.8% 79,496
  London Borough of Ealing 15.7% 53,198
  Kirklees 14.5%  61,280
  London Borough of Haringey 14.2% 36,130
  London Borough of Hackney 14.1% 34,727
  Several large cities have one area that is a majority Muslim even if the rest of the city has a fairly small Muslim population.  In addition, it is possible to find small areas that are almost entirely Muslim: for example, Savile Town in Dewsbury.
  Initial limited mosque availability meant that prayers were conducted in small rooms of council flats until the 1980s when more and larger facilities became available. Some synagogues and community buildings were turned into mosques and existing mosques began to expand their buildings. This process has continued down to the present day with the East London Mosque recently expanding into a large former car park where the London Muslim Centre is now used for prayers, recreational facilities and housing. Most people regard themselves as part of the ummah, and their identity is based on their religion rather than their ethnic group. Cultural aspects of a 'Bengali Islam' are seen as superstition and as un-Islamic.
  The 2001 census recorded that there were 179,733 Muslims who described themselves as 'white'. 65% of white Muslims described themselves as "other white", and would likely have originated from locations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Adygea, Chechnya, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, the region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece, and North Macedonia. The remainder of white Muslims are converts and mostly identified themselves as White British and White Irish.
  Islam is the third-largest religious group of British Indian people, after Hinduism and Sikhism. 8% of UK Muslims are of Indian descent, principally those whose origins are in Gujarat, West Bengal, Telangana and Kerala. Gujarati Muslims from the Surat and Bharuch districts started to arrive from the 1940s when India was under British colonial rule, settling in the towns of Dewsbury and Batley in Yorkshire and in parts of Lancashire.
caption: London Central Mosque interior
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