Which Western European countries have the highest and lowest employment rates for Muslims as of 2025?
Executive summary
Available reporting does not provide a country-by-country ranking of Muslim employment rates across all Western European states for 2025; instead, the best available cross‑EU source — the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) — gives an EU‑level employment rate for Muslim respondents of 63% versus 75% for the general population [1]. Other analyses and older studies document persistent “Muslim employment gaps” and factors (human capital, migration background, religiosity, perceived discrimination) that explain roughly 40% of the variance between Muslims and non‑Muslims [2] [3].
1. What the hard numbers say — EU‑wide snapshot, not a country league table
The FRA’s 2024/2025 reporting is the clearest recent dataset in the provided material: it reports an employment rate among Muslim respondents across the EU of about 63%, compared with 75% for the general population [1]. That is the closest direct, recent numeric comparison available in these sources; the FRA report does not in the provided excerpts give a ranked list of Western European countries by Muslim employment rate [1]. Available sources do not mention a definitive “highest” and “lowest” Western European country for Muslim employment in 2025.
2. Why you won’t find a neat country ranking in these sources
Academic work summarized here stresses measurement limits: many countries do not record religion in official censuses, samples can be small, and researchers often rely on surveys such as the European Social Survey (ESS) or targeted microcensuses that permit comparisons but not always stable country‑level estimates [3] [2]. The academic paper cited shows individual‑level factors account for roughly 40% of the Muslim/non‑Muslim employment variance — but it is a multi‑country analysis, not a current per‑country leaderboard [2] [3]. Therefore the available reporting focuses on gaps and causes rather than producing a ranked list [3] [2].
3. Patterns behind the gap — what multiple sources agree on
Researchers and the FRA converge on this: Muslims as a group face lower employment rates and higher discrimination reports across Europe. The academic literature documents consistent ethnic/religious penalties on labor markets, while the FRA finds Muslims report more discrimination when job‑seeking and at work; the FRA highlights that second‑generation Muslims report particularly high levels of discrimination when looking for work [3] [1]. The FRA also reports large employment‑sector discrimination rates in the five years prior to the survey (looking for work 39%, at work 35%) and higher precarity such as temporary contracts [4] [5].
4. Drivers of differences — human capital, migration history, gender, discrimination
The academic study synthesised from ESS data finds human capital, migration background, religiosity, cultural values and perceived discrimination jointly explain about 40% of the employment variance between Muslims and non‑Muslims [2]. Research also flags gendered patterns: Muslim women in Western Europe have substantially lower employment rates even after controlling for education and family status [6]. The FRA underscores that second‑generation Muslims often report higher discrimination in recruitment than immigrant Muslims, complicating simple “immigrant assimilation” explanations [1].
5. Country variation is likely but under‑documented in these sources
Journalistic and policy pieces referenced here point to variation across states — for example, employment gaps highlighted by the FRA and others show larger gaps in Sweden, Greece and the Netherlands in some analyses [5] — but those are not presented as a comprehensive 2025 ranking. Because national censuses and surveys vary in whether they collect religion and in sample sizes, cross‑country comparability is limited; the academic literature explicitly calls for more data collection and research [3] [2].
6. How to interpret claims you may see elsewhere
Be skeptical of any headline that purports to name the single “best” or “worst” Western European country for Muslim employment in 2025 unless it cites a transparent methodology and primary data. The most authoritative source in these search results (FRA) provides an EU‑level rate (63% for Muslims) and documents discrimination patterns, not a clean country ranking [1]. Historical and academic sources warn that factors like country sample size, differing definitions of “employment,” and unmeasured discrimination can drive apparent differences between countries [3] [2].
7. What’s needed to answer your original question more precisely
To produce a defensible “highest” and “lowest” country list for 2025 we would need country‑level survey or administrative data that: (a) identifies respondents’ religion, (b) uses consistent employment definitions, and (c) provides adequate sample sizes of Muslim respondents. Current sources call for more systematic data collection across EU states and note the limitations in making fine‑grained country comparisons from existing datasets [3] [2] [1].
If you want, I can (a) look for country‑level reports or national microcensus releases that break down employment by religion for specific Western European states, or (b) compile a table of country proxies (e.g., employment gaps reported by FRA or national reports) from more sources — but that will require searching beyond the materials you provided.