How Many Muslims Live in Germany? Patterns in Estimates from People With and Without a Migration Background
To The Point | November 2014
(Only available in German)
How much do people living in Germany know about the country’s Muslim population? This issue of the Research Unit’s To The Point analyses one facet of what people know about Muslims based on an analysis of the 2014 SVR Integration Barometer: how many Muslims live in Germany? The analysis shows that around 70 per cent of respondents overestimate, in some cases significantly, the number of Muslims living in Germany. Nearly one-third of those surveyed estimated the number to be higher than 10 million – although the actual figure is only around 4 million. Key factors in the accuracy of the estimate were the respondent's gender and level of education: women's estimates were much higher than men's regardless of the group of origin. People with upper secondary education (Abitur) were closer in their estimates to the actual figure than people with lower secondary education (Hauptschule).