UK’S Muslim population ‘will more than triple by 2050’

THE Muslim population of the UK will triple in 30 years, according to projections by a US think tank.

Under the model, which assume median migration levels, the number of Muslims will rise from 4.1 million in 2016 to 13million in 2050.

The Pew Research Centre says that the UK has been the major destination for economic migrants coming to Europe, while Germany has been the top destination for refugees.

The UK also has one of the largest gaps in fertility rates between Muslims and non-muslims, with Muslim women having an average of 2.9 children, compared with 1.8 among non-muslims.

This means that, even if migration were to stop, the group’s population share would rise by more than three per cent in the UK, as well as in France Italy, and Belgium.

The paper predicts that, if migration continues at the same rate but refugee movement stops, the UK will have the highest overall population of Muslims in the EU, at 13 million, making up 16.7 per cent of the population.

“Relatively few recent immigrants to the UK (60,000) were refugees, but more than 1.5million regular migrants arrived in recent years,” the paper said. “Overall, an estimated 43 per cent of all migrants to the UK between mid-2010 and mid-2016 were Muslims.”

The study also shows that the UK has one of the lower levels of hostility toward refugees from Iraq and Syria.

Just over one in three people see the refugees as a “major threat”, compared with 39 per cent in France, 42 per cent in Spain and 60 per cent in Poland.

According to figures from the Oxford-based Migration Observatory, one in five non-british-born people in the UK is Muslim.