You asked
Please disclose how many Muslims there are in the UK. Please also provide this number broken down into Sunni, Shia, Ahmadi etc.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry about how many Muslims there are in the UK.
We have produced Table 1 below using the most recent data available from the Annual Population Survey (APS) at the Great Britain level (England, Scotland and Wales). We don’t have any data below the overall Muslim category so are unable to break the figure down any further.
Table 1 Religion in Great Britain
| RELIG11 Religion GB level | |
|---|---|
| 1 No Religion | 23,725,080 |
| 2 Christian (all denominations) | 33,111,246 |
| 3 Budhist | 263,398 |
| 4 Hindu | 1,021,449 |
| 5 Jewish | 336,965 |
| 6 Muslim | 3,372,966 |
| 7 Sikh | 404,891 |
| 8 Any Other Religion | 1,028,513 |
| Total | 63,264,508 |
| Missing | 2,023,914 |
| Total | 65,288,422 |
| Source: Annual Population Survey April 2017 to March 2018, weighted Person Weight APS 2017 | |
Please note - this table may not be suitable for all analytical purposes as it has been produced in response to your ad hoc request and is based only on APS data. APS data is the population who live in private households only and so these figures will exclude people living in communal establishments (care homes, educational establishments, prisons, and so on). Estimates are based on a survey and are therefore subject to a margin of uncertainty. They should therefore be treated accordingly.
You would have to apply to Northern Ireland Statistical and Research Agency for information about Northern Ireland: info@nisra.gov.uk
If you are able to do your own cross-tabulations you could purchase an anonymised LFS or APS dataset from the UK Data Service. Details on costs and how to download the data can be found on their website:
Advice for commercial users - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/registration.aspx#/tab-commercial-users
Charges - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/charges.aspx
Data about religion are also available from the 2011 Census and can be found here.
This guide to the collection and classification of ethnic group, national identity and religion explains some of the complexities around collecting religion data.
When accessing any of our files, please read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us on pop.info@ons.gov.uk.