London Muslim Population Surges: UK Records Major Growth in Islamic Community
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Fatima Saif
- . July 21, 2025
- . Update: July 21, 2025 10:53 pm
According to the recent census data of the United Kingdom, the religious as well as ethnic profile of the country has changed in a remarkable manner. The London Muslim population has been increasing rapidly, and it is one of the contributing factors to the national growth that has changed the demographic distribution of Britain. The Office for National Statistics states that the growth of the Muslim community has boomed throughout the UK in the last decade, with London being the most diverse region in the country.
London Muslim Population Drives National Islamic Community Growth
According to the 2021 census, the percentage of Muslims in the entire population of the UK is now 6.5 and represents a total of 3.9 million persons. This is an impressive 44 percent boost of the 2011 results over the ten years that have passed. This growth has largely been contributed to by the London Muslim population since the capital city is getting more diverse.
London is today composed of 2/3 ethnic minorities, which translates to the most ethnically diverse region in England. The increase in the population of Muslims in London is part of wider demographic change that has transformed the major cities in the UK. Other cities such as Leicester, Luton, and Birmingham have been experiencing what can be termed as the minority majorities, where ethnic minorities are coming out as the largest population groups.
Census numbers have suggested that the majority of this population shift has been due to Asian communities who hail mainly in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and East Africa. The category of the Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh today comprises not less than 9.3 percent of the population, having been ranked as the second-largest ethnic group in the UK.
Cultural and Linguistic Changes Accompany London Muslim Population Growth
With the growing population of the Muslim community in London and the wider British Muslims, there has been a great cultural as well as linguistic diversity. Punjabi and Urdu have become the 5th and 6th most spoken languages in the UK, with 291,000 and 270,000 speakers respectively. These now represent about 1 % of the total population each.
Census shows that there are approximately 10 percent of households in the UK which have members belonging to at least two ethnic groups and this is 8.7 percent of what was contained in the last census. This tendency of the multicultural household is especially strong in the city of London where the community of Muslims and the other various communities is becoming increasingly connected and involving themselves to produce mixed-blood families.
In spite of the rising numbers of the London Muslim population, as well as the rise in ethnic diversity, national identity seems strong. In England and Wales as a whole, 9 out of every 10 individuals continue to describe themselves as having a UK national identity, and virtually 8 out of every 10 Londoners retain this sense of connection with the UK nation despite the multiethnic nature of the capital.
