Interactive People

How a Javanese minority gave Suriname the Americas’ highest Muslim share

No country in the Western Hemisphere has a larger proportion of Muslims than Suriname. Census counts show that two in three of them belong to a community descen

Akhyari Hananto

October 27, 2026 8:45 AM GMT+7

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Data Sources

Algemeen Bureau voor de Statistiek. (2013). Censusstatistieken 2012 [Census statistics 2012]. ABS. Ethnic and religious counts as tabulated in Wikipedia. (n.d.). Islam in Suriname. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Suriname Pew Research Center. (2009). Mapping the global Muslim population. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2009/10/07/publicationpage-aspxid1499/ Minority Rights Group International. (n.d.). Suriname. https://minorityrights.org/country/suriname/

No country in the Western Hemisphere has a larger proportion of Muslims than Suriname. Census counts show that two in three of them belong to a community descended from Java, which makes up less than 14% of the population.

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