How many Muslims live in Italy? Three numbers, three methods
Italy has never asked a religion question in its population census, and its permanent census, run by the national statistics institute ISTAT, records citizenship and country of birth but not faith. Every figure for the number of Muslims in Italy is therefore an estimate, and the answer depends on who is being counted. The three most cited numbers measure different things, and mixing them up is the most common source of confusion about the topic.
The first is the estimate of Muslims among foreign residents, produced every year by Fondazione ISMU ETS, a Milan research foundation. It applies religious shares measured in field surveys to the ISTAT register count of foreign residents by citizenship, sex and age. In its July 2025 release, ISMU put the number of Muslim foreign residents at about 1.7 million at 1 January 2025, including minors, and said Muslims had passed 30 percent of the foreign resident population for the first time. The infographics of the 31st ISMU Migration Report, published in February 2026, give a share of 31.0 percent in a later mid-2025 estimate.
The second is the share of the whole population, citizens included, estimated by the Pew Research Center. Its global dataset, published in June 2025 with a country appendix updated in February 2026, puts Muslims at 4.4 percent of the population of Italy in 2020, up from 3.4 percent in 2010. On a population of about 59 million, 4.4 percent equals roughly 2.6 million people; this is a BusinessStats calculation, as Pew publishes the share. The gap between the two estimates largely reflects Muslims who already hold Italian citizenship, a group that no official register identifies by religion.
The third is an older direct measurement. In a sample survey of foreign citizens aged 6 and over carried out in 2011 and 2012, ISTAT found that 26.3 percent described themselves as Muslim, against 56.4 percent Christian and 7.1 percent atheist. It remains the only official ISTAT survey of religion among foreign residents, and its results were published in October 2015. For the place of Italy in the global picture, see our ranking of the countries with the largest Muslim population.
| Source | What it measures | Reference date | Estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fondazione ISMU ETS | Muslims among foreign residents (non citizens), all ages | 1 January 2025 | About 1.7 million, just over 30% of foreign residents |
| Fondazione ISMU ETS | Same method, earlier edition | 1 January 2019 | About 1.58 million, 30.1% of foreign residents |
| Pew Research Center | Muslim share of the total population, citizens included | 2020 | 4.4% of residents (3.4% in 2010) |
| ISTAT sample survey | Self described Muslims among foreign citizens aged 6+ | 2011 to 2012 | 26.3% of 3.64 million foreign citizens aged 6+ |
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The ISMU and Pew figures are not additive. ISMU covers only people with a foreign citizenship; Pew covers everyone living in Italy. The roughly 2.6 million implied by the Pew share is a BusinessStats calculation.
Morocco first, Bangladesh and Pakistan now ahead of Albania
Moroccans remain the largest national group among Muslim foreign residents. ISMU estimates just over 400,000 Moroccan Muslims at 1 January 2025, a number it describes as declining. The next two places have changed hands in recent years: Muslims from Bangladesh (almost 180,000) and Pakistan (nearly 170,000) are growing quickly and have overtaken Albanian Muslims, estimated at just over 150,000. ISMU publishes rounded figures in its press release, so the 2025 values below are shown exactly as rounded by the foundation.
A South Asian rise: between 2018 and 2025 the estimated number of Bangladeshi Muslims grew by about 60 percent and Pakistani Muslims by about 60 percent, while Albanian Muslims fell by about a quarter.
The comparison shows two different dynamics. Moroccan and Albanian communities arrived mainly in the 1990s and 2000s, are settled and family based, and are losing members from the foreign count as people naturalise. ISMU counted 440,000 Moroccan Muslims at 1 January 2019 and 226,000 Albanian Muslims; six years later both numbers were lower even though new Moroccan arrivals continue. Bangladeshi and Pakistani migration is more recent and still growing: Bangladeshi Muslims numbered 111,000 in 2018 and almost 180,000 in 2025.
Together, the four largest groups add up to about 900,000 people, a little more than half of all Muslim foreign residents. The remaining 800,000 or so come from a long list of countries, led by Egypt, Tunisia, Senegal and other states of North and West Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and Central Asia. ISMU did not publish separate national counts for these groups in its 2025 release, so they are shown together below.
Morocco alone is about a quarter: on these rounded figures Moroccans make up roughly 24 percent of Muslim foreign residents and the four largest groups about 53 percent.
Foreign residents from Muslim majority countries: the ISTAT count
Behind every ISMU estimate sits an official ISTAT count of foreign residents by citizenship. At 1 January 2025 Italy had 5,371,251 foreign residents, 9.1 percent of the population. Romania was the largest group with 1,053,042 residents, followed by Albania (414,622) and Morocco (412,457). Among countries with a Muslim majority or plurality, Bangladesh (213,622), Egypt (174,141), Pakistan (171,179), Tunisia (123,828) and Senegal (119,067) all rank in the top 13 citizenships.
Citizenship is not religion: Albania and Morocco have almost the same number of residents, but ISMU estimates about 400,000 Moroccan Muslims against just over 150,000 Albanian Muslims.
The difference between residents and Muslims by country is largest for Albania. In its preliminary estimates at 1 January 2021, ISMU put the Muslim share at 98.6 percent of Moroccan residents, 96.0 percent of Bangladeshis and 95.6 percent of Pakistanis, but only 42.5 percent of Albanian residents, many of whom are Orthodox, Catholic or of no religion. That is why Albania is second by citizenship but fourth by number of Muslims. Egypt is a smaller case of the same effect: in Lombardy, ISMU counts about 80,000 Egyptian Muslims and nearly 30,000 Coptic Christians.
| Citizenship | Residents, 1 Jan 2025 (ISTAT) | Share of all foreign residents | Muslim share of nationals (ISMU, 1 Jan 2021) | Muslims, 1 Jan 2025 (ISMU) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | 414,622 | 7.7% | 42.5% | just over 150,000 |
| Morocco | 412,457 | 7.7% | 98.6% | just over 400,000 |
| Bangladesh | 213,622 | 4.0% | 96.0% | almost 180,000 |
| Egypt | 174,141 | 3.2% | not published | not published |
| Pakistan | 171,179 | 3.2% | 95.6% | nearly 170,000 |
| Tunisia | 123,828 | 2.3% | not published | not published |
| Senegal | 119,067 | 2.2% | not published | not published |
| All foreign residents | 5,371,251 | 100% | about 1.7 million |
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Residents by citizenship are ISTAT register data at 1 January 2025. Muslim shares by nationality are from the ISMU preliminary estimates at 1 January 2021; Muslim counts are the rounded ISMU estimates at 1 January 2025.
The foreign population has kept growing since then. ISTAT provisional data put foreign residents at about 5.56 million at 1 January 2026, up 188,000 or 3.5 percent in a year, equal to 9.4 percent of the 58.94 million people living in Italy. The faith mix of the whole foreign population, including Orthodox Christians, Catholics and people of no religion, is covered in our analysis of the religious affiliation of foreigners in Italy; this page concentrates on the Muslim part and where it comes from.
New arrivals now come mostly from South Asia and North Africa
The change in the origin mix is clearest when the 2011 to 2012 ISTAT survey is set against the latest ISMU estimate. In the ISTAT survey, Moroccans made up 34.8 percent of Muslim foreign citizens aged 6 and over, Albanians 15.3 percent and Tunisians 8.3 percent. On the rounded ISMU figures for 2025, Moroccans account for roughly 24 percent of Muslim foreign residents and Albanians for roughly 9 percent, while Bangladeshis and Pakistanis together account for about 20 percent. These are BusinessStats calculations from published totals and the two sources use different methods, so the comparison shows direction rather than precise change.
Residence permit data show where new arrivals come from. In 2024, for the first time, Bangladesh topped the list of first permits issued to non EU citizens with 28,045, ahead of Morocco with 25,776. In 2025 the total number of new permits rose 47.2 percent to 426,956 and Morocco returned to first place.
Arrivals rose across the board: new permits grew 72.8 percent for Moroccans, 59.4 percent for Egyptians, 50.5 percent for Tunisians, 41.9 percent for Bangladeshis and 39.4 percent for Pakistanis in 2025.
Migration registers point the same way. ISTAT provisional data for 2025 count about 37,000 immigrants from Bangladesh registering as new residents (up 22.0 percent) and about 26,000 from Pakistan (up 20.0 percent), while Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia together supplied about 76,000 entries. In the stock of valid permits at 31 December 2025, which reached 4,030,016, the number of Bangladeshi holders rose 16.9 percent in a year, Tunisian holders 13.6 percent and Pakistani holders 13.1 percent.
- New arrivals: Bangladesh, Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Tunisia are among the top sources of new permits, so these groups keep growing in the foreign count.
- Naturalisation: long settled Albanian and Moroccan residents leave the foreign count when they become Italian, which lowers their numbers even when the community grows.
- Births: children born in Italy to foreign parents are counted as foreign residents until they acquire citizenship, which keeps minor shares high in younger communities.
- Religious mix within each nationality: nearly all Moroccans, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis in Italy are Muslim, but fewer than half of Albanians are.
Naturalisation moves hundreds of thousands out of the foreign count
Italy granted citizenship to more than 200,000 people a year in 2022, 2023 and 2024. ISTAT recorded 213,716 acquisitions in 2022, 213,567 in 2023 and a record 217,448 in 2024, before a fall to 196,955 in 2025, which ISTAT links mainly to 2025 legal changes that restrict citizenship by descent. Of the 2025 total, about 178,000 went to people with a non EU citizenship. ISMU calculates that 1,663,746 people acquired citizenship between 2015 and 2024.
| Year | Total acquisitions | Former Albanian citizens | Former Moroccan citizens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 213,716 | not shown here | not shown here |
| 2023 | 213,567 | not shown here | not shown here |
| 2024 | 217,448 | nearly 32,000 | 28,000 |
| 2025 | 196,955 | 25,725 (14.4% of non EU) | 23,386 (13.1% of non EU) |
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ISTAT figures. 2022 from the ISTAT table on acquisitions of citizenship by sex; 2023 and 2024 from the 31st ISMU Migration Report and ISTAT; 2024 national breakdown from ISTAT, I comportamenti familiari dei nuovi italiani (December 2025); 2025 from ISTAT, Cittadini non comunitari in Italia, Anno 2025. Shares for 2025 are of the 178,000 or so non EU acquisitions.
Albanians and Moroccans are the two largest groups of new citizens, and their communities are now split almost evenly between passports. At 31 December 2025 ISTAT counted more than 93 Italians of Albanian origin for every 100 Albanian permit holders and more than 72 Italians of Moroccan origin for every 100 Moroccan permit holders, against about 17 for Ukrainians and about 6 for Chinese. In total, ISTAT estimates that nearly 2.09 million new Italians, people who acquired citizenship, were living in Italy at the end of 2024.
Naturalisation is also spreading to the South Asian communities. The Ministry of Labour community report published in 2023 counts more than 50,000 Bangladeshi nationals who became Italian between 2012 and 2022, with 6,921 acquisitions in 2022 alone, and 4,936 Pakistani acquisitions in 2022. In 2025 ISTAT reported about 2,000 more acquisitions by Pakistanis than in 2024, one of the few groups to increase.
Why this matters for the Muslim count: a Moroccan who becomes Italian leaves the ISMU foreign resident estimate but stays in the Pew whole population share. No register records the religion of new citizens, so the number of Muslims with Italian citizenship can only be inferred. The research centre CESNUR publishes its own estimates for citizens, which we review in our page on Italian citizens belonging to religious minorities.
Lombardy holds the largest share of almost every Muslim community
Foreign residents as a whole are concentrated in the North. At 1 January 2026, ISTAT provisional data put about 3.23 million foreign residents in the North (58.1 percent of the total), 1.34 million in the Centre (24.2 percent) and about 986,000 in the South and islands (17.7 percent). Foreigners make up 11.7 percent of residents in the North and 11.5 percent in the Centre but only 5.0 percent in the South.
Lombardy, the most populous region, is home to the largest Muslim population. ISMU estimates that close to 400,000 Muslim foreign residents lived there at 1 January 2025, outnumbered by about 610,000 Christians. The largest Muslim groups in Lombardy are Moroccans (over 80,000) and Egyptians (about 80,000). The ISMU 2019 study shows how specific the geography is: the largest single national religious groups by province were Egyptian Muslims in Milan (51,000), Bangladeshi Muslims in Rome (35,000) and Moroccan Muslims in Turin (25,000), followed by Moroccan Muslims in Milan, Bergamo, Modena, Brescia, Verona and Bologna.
Two thirds of Egyptians in one region: 66.9 percent of Egyptian permit holders live in Lombardy, mostly in the Milan area, while Bangladeshis are the only community shown whose first region is Lazio.
The Ministry of Labour community reports, which use permit data at 1 January 2023, give a fuller picture of each group. Moroccans are the most evenly spread of the large communities, with 22.1 percent in Lombardy, 14.0 percent in Emilia-Romagna and 12.5 percent in Piedmont, and 18.5 percent in the South and islands. Bangladeshis are the exception to the northern pattern: 26.7 percent live in Lazio, mainly in Rome, and 36 percent in the Centre as a whole.
| Community | Permit holders | First region | Second region | Third region | Share in the North |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morocco | 399,146 | Lombardy 22.1% | Emilia-Romagna 14.0% | Piedmont 12.5% | 66.5% |
| Albania | 389,646 | Lombardy, just over 20% | Tuscany 14.0% | Emilia-Romagna 13.1% | 60.6% |
| Bangladesh | 162,641 | Lazio 26.7% | Lombardy 16.0% | Veneto 11.6% | 46.2% |
| Egypt | 155,892 | Lombardy 66.9% | Lazio 12.6% | Piedmont 6.8% | about 82% |
| Pakistan | 138,884 | Lombardy 30.7% | Emilia-Romagna 17.4% | Tuscany 8.3% | 67.7% |
| Senegal | 101,616 | Lombardy 31.5% | Tuscany 12.2% | Emilia-Romagna 10.5% | 63% |
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Source: Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, community reports 2023 (data at 1 January 2023). Permit holders exclude EU citizens and people who have become Italian, so totals are lower than the ISTAT resident counts for 2025.
The South and islands host a smaller part of each community. Among the groups shown, Moroccans (18.5 percent) and Bangladeshis (17.8 percent, including 6.6 percent in Campania and 6.1 percent in Sicily) have the largest southern shares, against 12.3 percent for Pakistanis. In the ISMU study published in 2021, with province data at 1 January 2020, Naples was the only southern province with more than 2 percent of all Muslim foreign residents in Italy.
Gender balance and age differ sharply between communities
The communities also differ in structure, which reflects how long they have been in Italy. Older migrations from Morocco and Albania have close to equal numbers of men and women and many children born in Italy. Newer flows from South Asia and Senegal remain mostly male, as men often arrive first for work and families follow later through reunification.
Young Egyptian community: minors make up 31.9 percent of Egyptian permit holders, the highest share among the main non EU nationalities, against 20.6 percent for all non EU citizens.
Women account for 49.4 percent of Albanian and 46.2 percent of Moroccan permit holders, close to the 49.8 percent average for all non EU citizens. Among Bangladeshis the share is 28.0 percent, among Senegalese 27.5 percent and among Pakistanis 26.5 percent. Minors make up 26.5 percent of the Moroccan community, 23.5 percent of the Albanian community and 31.9 percent of the Egyptian one, against 20.6 percent for all non EU citizens. For a comparison of how age shapes religious groups at world level, see our world religions by population page.
Italy has a smaller Muslim share than most large Western European countries
On the Pew Research Center estimates for 2020, the Muslim share of the population of Italy, 4.4 percent, is below that of France (9.1 percent), Austria (8.3 percent), Sweden (8.1 percent), Belgium (6.8 percent), Germany (6.5 percent), the United Kingdom (6.4 percent) and the Netherlands (5.5 percent), and above Spain (3.6 percent). Pew estimates that Muslims made up about 6 percent of all residents of Europe in 2020, or 46 million people.
Lower share, recent growth: the Muslim share in Italy rose by 1.0 point between 2010 and 2020, compared with 2.5 points in France and 3.6 points in Sweden.
Over the same decade Pew finds a larger shift away from religion than towards Islam in Italy: the Christian share fell from 88.5 to 80.5 percent and the religiously unaffiliated share almost doubled from 6.7 to 13.3 percent. That decline in Catholic practice is documented in our report on weekly church attendance in Italy. Comparable national data for other countries are available in our pages on religion in France, religion in England and Wales and religion in Europe.
How the figures on this page were compiled
All counts of Muslims on this page are estimates, because no Italian official source records religion for the whole population. The ISMU estimates combine ISTAT register data on foreign residents by citizenship, sex and age with religious shares observed in field surveys, including the Lombardy regional observatory ORIM. ISMU revises its shares as new survey data arrive, so consecutive editions are not strictly comparable. Its preliminary estimate for 1 January 2021 was below 1.4 million, 8.4 percent lower than two years earlier, before the count rose again to about 1.7 million by 2025.
- ISMU 2025 values are rounded as published (just over 400,000, almost 180,000 and so on). The residual for other origins is a BusinessStats calculation.
- Residents by citizenship are final ISTAT figures at 1 January 2025. The 5.56 million total for 1 January 2026 is provisional.
- Regional and gender data come from the Ministry of Labour community reports at 1 January 2023 and cover non EU permit holders only, of all religions.
- The Pew share for 2020 covers citizens and foreigners. The 2.6 million equivalent is a BusinessStats calculation on a population of about 59 million.
- Citizenship by former nationality is ISTAT data. Religion of new citizens is not recorded anywhere.
This page replaces an earlier version that gave a total of 2.7 million Muslims and a 4.9 percent population share for 2026, country counts for Egypt, Tunisia, Senegal and Nigeria, and age and sect breakdowns that were not taken from a primary source. Those numbers have been removed. Where a figure could not be confirmed with the institution that produced it, it is not shown. For wider context on the population base, see our world population statistics and the Europe topic overview.
Muslims in Italy in eight numbers
Questions about Muslims in Italy
There is no official count because Italy does not ask about religion in its census. Fondazione ISMU estimates about 1.7 million Muslims among foreign residents at 1 January 2025. Pew Research Center puts Muslims at 4.4 percent of the whole population in 2020, roughly 2.6 million people including Italian citizens.
Morocco. ISMU estimates just over 400,000 Moroccan Muslims among foreign residents at 1 January 2025, followed by almost 180,000 from Bangladesh, nearly 170,000 from Pakistan and just over 150,000 from Albania.
Just over 30 percent at 1 January 2025, the first time the share has passed that level, according to ISMU. Its 31st Migration Report gives 31.0 percent in a mid-2025 estimate. Christians of all denominations together are still the majority of foreign residents.
ISTAT counted 412,457 residents with Moroccan citizenship at 1 January 2025, the third largest foreign group after Romanians and Albanians. Many more people of Moroccan origin are Italian citizens: ISTAT counts more than 72 Italians of Moroccan origin for every 100 Moroccan permit holders.
Lombardy. ISMU estimates close to 400,000 Muslim foreign residents there at 1 January 2025, led by Moroccans and Egyptians with about 80,000 each. Two thirds of Egyptian permit holders in Italy live in Lombardy.
The number of Muslim foreign residents rose from about 1.58 million in 2019 to about 1.7 million in 2025 on ISMU estimates, with growth driven by arrivals from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt and Morocco. Pew estimates the Muslim share of the total population rose from 3.4 percent in 2010 to 4.4 percent in 2020.
ISTAT recorded 217,448 acquisitions of citizenship in 2024 and 196,955 in 2025. Albanians (25,725) and Moroccans (23,386) were the largest groups in 2025.
Because they measure different populations. ISMU counts only residents with a foreign citizenship, while Pew estimates the share of everyone living in Italy, including naturalised and Italian born Muslims. Older figures also use different reference years and survey sources.
Fondazione ISMU ETS: Immigrati e religioni: crescono i musulmani, ma i cristiani restano la maggioranza, press release, 10 July 2025 (estimates at 1 January 2025).
Fondazione ISMU ETS: 31st Report on Migrations 2025, infographics, February 2026 (ISTAT residents by citizenship at 1 January 2025; religious shares of foreign residents).
Fondazione ISMU ETS: L appartenenza religiosa degli stranieri residenti in Italia, I dati al 1 gennaio 2019.
Fondazione ISMU ETS: L appartenenza religiosa degli stranieri residenti in Italia, Prime ipotesi al 1 gennaio 2021.
ISTAT: Indicatori demografici, Anno 2025, 31 March 2026 (population and foreign residents at 1 January 2026, acquisitions and migration in 2025).
ISTAT: Cittadini non comunitari in Italia, Anno 2025, 22 October 2026, with the full report PDF.
ISTAT: Cittadini non comunitari in Italia, Anno 2024, 28 October 2025.
ISTAT: I comportamenti familiari dei nuovi italiani, December 2025 (stock of new Italians and 2024 acquisitions by origin).
ISTAT: Giornata internazionale dei migranti, 18 December 2025 (2024 permits and acquisitions).
ISTAT: Appartenenza e pratica religiosa tra i cittadini stranieri, Anni 2011-2012, 2 October 2015.
Pew Research Center: Religious Diversity Around the World, Appendix C, 12 February 2026 (religious composition of Italy and other countries, 2010 and 2020).
Pew Research Center: Religion in Europe, chapter of How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020, 9 June 2025.
Ministry of Labour and Social Policies: Rapporto comunita marocchina in Italia 2023, with the 2023 reports on the Albanian, Bangladeshi, Egyptian, Pakistani and Senegalese communities and the Comunita a confronto summary (data at 1 January 2023).