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Which Michigan counties saw the biggest growth in Muslim population between 2010 and 2025?
Executive summary
Available sources confirm Michigan has one of the larger Muslim populations in the U.S.—roughly 240,000–274,000 people (about 2.4–2.75% of the state) in mid-2010s–2025 estimates—yet none of the provided reporting gives a county-by-county breakdown of Muslim population change from 2010 to 2025 [1] [2] [3]. Localities repeatedly mentioned as Muslim population centers are Wayne County cities such as Dearborn and Hamtramck, but the sources do not supply the county-level growth figures asked for [4] [5].
1. What the statewide numbers show — Michigan’s Muslim population in context
Multiple sources place Michigan among states with comparatively large Muslim communities: a 2015-focused analysis estimated about 273,734 Muslims in Michigan (2.75% of the state) and 2025 reporting and state proclamations refer to roughly 240,000 Muslims (about 2.4%) in the state—numbers that establish Michigan as a major state-level concentration but do not resolve year-to-year county shifts [1] [2] [3].
2. Cities and counties repeatedly named as Muslim population centers
Reporting and local profiles single out Metro Detroit municipalities—most prominently Dearborn and Hamtramck—as dense centers of Muslim and Arab-American residents. Dearborn has long been described as having the “proportionally largest Muslim population in the United States,” and Hamtramck is described as a Muslim-majority city; both are located in Wayne County or surrounded by Detroit (Dearborn in Wayne County; Hamtramck an enclave near Detroit) and point to Wayne County as a focal point for Michigan’s Muslim population [4] [5].
3. Why county growth numbers are not in these sources
The materials provided are statewide analyses, city profiles, advocacy reports and statistical summaries; none publish a systematic county-by-county series showing Muslim-population counts in 2010 and 2025 or calculate percent change across that interval. Thus the specific question—“Which counties saw the biggest growth between 2010 and 2025?”—cannot be answered from the current reporting because those county-level time-series data are not provided [4] [1] [2] [5] [3].
4. What the available evidence implies (but does not prove) about county trends
Given repeated references to Dearborn and Hamtramck as high-density Muslim localities, one plausible inference is that Wayne County (which contains Dearborn and surrounds Hamtramck) has been an important locus of Muslim population and likely saw substantial absolute numbers compared with less-populated counties. However, an inference is not a direct measurement: the sources do not offer county counts for 2010 vs. 2025 to quantify growth rates or rank counties [4] [5] [3].
5. Alternative viewpoints and data limitations to consider
Advocacy and local-history sources (e.g., Muslims for American Progress) emphasize long-term growth driven by immigration, births, and second/third-generation population increases, which would produce statewide and local growth over decades but again stop short of county-by-county change figures [1]. Other aggregators and population-rank lists give statewide totals for 2025 but do not break numbers down by county or by the 2010 baseline [6] [2]. This means both academic demographers and journalists would need to consult Census microdata, American Community Survey (ACS) estimates, or local government demographic studies to produce the requested county growth rankings—sources not included here [6] [2].
6. How to get the county-by-county answer (next steps)
Based on gaps in the available reporting, a rigorous county ranking for 2010–2025 would require: 1) specifying the metric (self‑identified Muslim religion is not directly asked by the U.S. Census; proxies include ancestry, country/region of origin, language, or mosque membership), 2) using decennial Census, ACS multi-year estimates, local jurisdiction surveys, or mosque/congregational data to construct comparable county estimates for 2010 and 2020/2025, and 3) documenting methodological limits. The present sources do not perform these steps [4] [1] [5].
7. Bottom line for your question
Available sources identify Wayne County’s municipalities (Dearborn, Hamtramck) as Michigan’s most notable Muslim population centers and give statewide estimates (about 240,000–274,000 Muslims), but they do not provide the county-level 2010-to-2025 growth figures you asked for. To answer your original query definitively, consult Census/ACS data or local demographic studies that explicitly report religion or close proxies by county across the relevant years—documents not included among the current sources [4] [1] [2] [5] [3].