You asked

I would like to request the following information:

  1. The number of Muslims currently living in the UK as the most recent statistic in 2019.

  2. How many Muslims have claimed asylum in the UK to the most recent statistic in 2019.

  3. How many people (no specific religion or ethnicity) have claimed asylum in the UK to the most recent statistic in 2019.

  4. In relation to questions 2 and 3, I would like to know how many were granted asylum in the UK and how many were not to the most recent statistic in 2019.

We said

Thank you for your request for information on Muslims in the UK.

In answer to your requests 2 to 4, information on asylum seekers is collected by the Home Office and is not available from the Office for National Statistics. See: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-march-2019/how-many-people-do-we-grant-asylum-or-protection-to

The information you have requested on the number of Muslims currently living in the United Kingdom can be obtained from the customer services team of the ONS Social Survey Operations Division. This team provides an ad hoc analysis service, including - of relevance in this instance - tabulations of Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) data, both of which contain question variables relating to religion. This service is subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate. Details of the variables included in these datasets can be viewed in the LFS User Guides.

If you would like to enquire about our service, then please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk.

Because this information is available through that route, ONS considers that Freedom of Information Act S21(1) applies to this request and the information does not have to be supplied under the Freedom of Information Act. S21(1) is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest needs to be applied.

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