You asked
Please can you answer the following questions:
1) As of June 2020, how many Muslims are there currently in the United Kingdom?
2) Can you provide a breakdown of the different ethnicities the numbers fall under as of June 2020?
We said
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request about the number of Muslims in the UK and their ethnicities.
Our most recent publication about religion is Religion by sex and age group in Great Britain, 2018 to 2019, published on 13 December 2019. Religion data are collected slightly differently in Northern Ireland so you would have to contact the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) for further information.
The most comprehensive data we can provide is from the 2011 Census and can be found in this table showing population by ethnic group and religion. These data are for England and Wales only and you would need to contact National Records of Scotland for 2011 Census data for Scotland, and NISRA 2011 Census data for Northern Ireland.
On 4 December 2019 we published this research report on population estimates by ethnicity and religion setting out our latest findings about these estimates. This report builds on previous ones and while it contains some experimental data, the report points to the 2011 Census as the latest available National Statistics for religion and ethnic group.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide more up-to-date information in response to this request. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create a bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.
However, it may be possible for us to provide more up to date information from the Annual Population Survey as part of our bespoke service. This would require us to create a dataset with a special extract and tabulation of the data by ethnicity and religion. Please note that the disclosure of this information would be subject to legal frameworks, disclosure controls, resources, and agreement of costs, where appropriate. Please contact us directly on pop.info@ons.gov.uk to discuss the provision of such analysis. You can find information on our charging policy here.
When accessing any of our files please read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them.
Please do not hesitate to contact us directly on pop.info@ons.gov.uk if you require anything further.