Norway: Sharp increase in number of Muslim faith-communities

Norway: Sharp increase in number of Muslim faith-communities

The number of Muslim communities in Norway has increased by close to 40% since 2000. Over 30 new Muslim communities registered in Norway in the past five years.

The new figures from Norway Statistics (SSB) and newspaper Vårt Land show that the ratio of faith communities increased at a much greater pace than the ratio of Muslims.

In the past five years, 15% more Muslims were registered in Norway, while the increase in registered faith-societies was 37% in the same period.

Two of the reasons for the increase in faith-societies is the many new asylum-seekers as well as the fact that more choose to register their smaller communities, reports the newspaper.

The increase in Muslim faith-societies is mainly outside Oslo.

There were 92,744 Muslims registered in 126 Muslim communities in Norway in 2009. All together there are 126 mosques in Norway.

In the number of members of faith-societies besides the national church, Islam is the second largest religion in the country with 21.5% of the members.

54.5% are Christians [Roman Catholic, Pentecostals], 18.8% belong to non-religious communities [99% belonging to the Humanistic association] and 5.3% to others.

Sources: GD, SSB (Norwegian)