Meet Muslim Census

At the heights of the pandemic in 2020, reports were published stating ethnic minorities were at 2 or 3 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19. Alongside the disproportionate death rate, areas such as unemployment, poverty and mental health were all drastically impacted. However, there were no data sources exploring how Muslims, a statistically poorer demographic, were affected by COVID-19.

This lack of data triggered the founders to develop the idea that became Muslim Census. An organisation that champions ‘Data for Good’ and aims to uncover the issues directly impacting the UK Muslim population of close to 3.5million. Muslim Census launched in July 2020 and became the first of its kind data and insights organisation for a faith group.

Before Muslim Census, the data representation for Muslims was poor and potentially dangerous. An example of this is the early reports on vaccine hesitancy published by SAGE. Of the back of this report, it was deemed that Muslims were considerably more hesitant than their non-Muslim counterparts – this study was reported with this narrative across several major news publications. Looking closer at the data, faith was not even included as an identifier! The report assumed that those of South Asian heritage fell into the Muslim faith group. However, less than 200 Pakistani and Bengalis were surveyed combined. We reacted by working alongside the NHS to survey 2,500 Muslims across the UK and across all ethnicities to create a much more accurate understanding.

To continue to remedy the lack of data representation, Muslim Census conducts research via online surveys, focus groups and interviews to provide data and actionable insights on issues affecting the Muslim population in the UK.