Ethnic group by religion in the UK

FOI reference: FOI-2026-3564

You asked

Could you provide a breakdown of the numbers of different ethnic groups that are Muslims in the UK?

Could we estimate the number of white born Muslims in the UK today in comparison to before?

We said

Thank you for your request. 

The most recent data available on ethnicity and religion are from the 2021 Census.

Although UK censuses are typically conducted on the same day, they are administered separately by each national statistics agency: 

• Office for National Statistics (ONS) – England and Wales 

• National Records of Scotland (NRS) 

• Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) 

Therefore, we do not hold the requested data for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain this data from NRS and NISRA, they can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk, respectively. 

We have provided the following census datasets from 2011 and 2021, which include breakdowns of ethnic group by religion: 

2021 Census Dataset (RM031): Ethnic group by religion 

2011 Census Dataset (DC2201EW): Ethnic group by religion 

These datasets have been sourced from the Nomis website, which is managed by Durham University on behalf of the ONS. 

Please note that direct comparisons between the two census years should be made with caution. This is because of changes in administrative boundaries and differences in question design between censuses. 

Unfortunately we do not hold any information on religion at birth. We do hold data on birth by ethnicity, which may be of interest. The most recent data available can be found in our Births in England and Wales: linked births dataset.