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Which English local authority has the highest proportion of Muslim councillors in 2025?
Executive summary
Available reporting does not provide a definitive, sourced ranking of which single English local authority had the highest proportion of Muslim councillors in 2025; instead, contemporary coverage offers counts and concentrations of Muslim councillors (for example: an exclusive Muslim News dataset estimates 134 Muslim candidates stood in England in May 2025 with 39 winning seats across 24 local authorities, and highlights concentrations in Buckinghamshire, Lancashire and West Northamptonshire) [1][2]. Census and research material show Muslim populations concentrate in specific local authorities (e.g., many councils in London, Birmingham, Bradford, Luton, Oldham, Blackburn and Rochdale have higher Muslim shares) but these sources do not translate population share directly into councillor proportions [3][4][5].
1. What the election data actually shows — numbers, not clear proportions
Muslim News’ exclusive data for the 1 May 2025 local polls compiled counts of Muslim candidates and successful councillors by authority: it reports an estimated 134 Muslim candidates across England with 39 elected, and it names Buckinghamshire (14 Muslim councillors elected from 28 candidates among unitary authorities), Lancashire (six elected from 23 candidates among county councils) and West Northamptonshire (five elected of 13) as places of notable concentration in that exercise [1][2]. Those figures are raw counts of councillors and candidates; they are not presented as percentages of each council’s total number of seats, so they cannot alone identify the single highest proportion of Muslim councillors without additional denominator data [1][2].
2. Why population concentration and councillor share are not the same thing
Publicly available census analysis and MCB reports document where Muslim populations are concentrated (London, Birmingham, Bradford, Luton, Oldham, Blackburn, Rochdale and other mill towns) and give Muslim shares of the general population (e.g., Muslims ≈6% UK-wide from census aggregates) [3][4][5]. Academic research shows that higher local Muslim population shares make it more likely Muslim candidates will be nominated and elected, but it is a predictive relationship, not a direct accounting of councillor proportions — and the research cited does not provide a 2025 authority-by-authority proportion of Muslim councillors [6].
3. What would be required to answer your question precisely
To identify the English local authority with the highest proportion of Muslim councillors in 2025 you need two linked datasets: (a) a verified list of all elected councillors in each local authority with an attribute recording whether they are Muslim, and (b) the total number of councillor seats in each authority. None of the provided sources supplies that authority-by-authority proportion table for 2025; Muslim News provides counts by authority for its 2025 local elections coverage but not percentages of total council composition [1][2]. The academic and MCB sources give context on population distribution and general representation patterns but not the specific proportion metric [6][5].
4. Competing perspectives and limitations in existing reporting
Community press (Muslim News) emphasises counts and celebrates electoral breakthroughs in particular authorities such as Buckinghamshire and Lancashire, which can signal where Muslim representation grew in 2025 but may produce different “top” authorities depending on whether you measure raw numbers or proportion of seats [1][2]. Census and analytical sources focus on population concentrations — a different metric that correlates with representation but does not equate to councillor share [3][4][5]. Independent fact-checking outlets caution against overstating influence from headline lists (e.g., viral mayor claims) and emphasise careful use of definitions — another reason to avoid inferring proportions from scattered lists or ceremonial titles [7].
5. Best available provisional conclusions and next steps
Provisional reporting points to Buckinghamshire, Lancashire and West Northamptonshire as 2025 focal points for newly elected Muslim councillors in England, but none of the provided sources states explicitly which authority had the highest proportion of Muslim councillors as a share of its council seats [1][2]. To settle your question authoritatively, obtain (or compile) a 2025 list of councillors with religious-identification coding (or self-reported/reliable public profiles) and divide Muslim councillor counts by each council’s total seats — or request such an analysis from the organisations that produced the raw counts (Muslim News, Labour Muslim Network) or from a data specialist using council composition records [1][2][8].
If you want, I can: (a) try to extract authority-by-authority counts from Muslim News’ full dataset referenced in its exclusive pieces and pair those with council sizes to estimate proportions, or (b) draft an outreach message you could send to Muslim News, the Muslim Council of Britain or the Labour Muslim Network requesting an authority-level proportion table for 2025.