How has the number of Muslim mayors in England changed over the last two decades?
Executive summary
Over the past two decades there has been at most a modest rise in the visibility of Muslim individuals holding mayoral office in England, but the popular narrative that there has been a large, easily countable surge is misleading; accurate totals are hard to establish because of different mayoral types and the fact that civic officeholders’ religion is not systematically recorded [1] [2]. Fact-checking outlets find specific viral claims — for example that nine major cities have Muslim mayors — are mostly false when clarified against the distinction between directly elected executive mayors and ceremonial civic mayors [3] [2].
1. The viral claim versus the verifiable record
Social media posts asserting that London, Birmingham, Leeds, Blackburn, Sheffield, Oxford, Luton, Oldham and Rochdale all have Muslim mayors were widely shared and drove a perception of rapid change, but Reuters and other fact-checkers determined those lists conflate different offices and include inaccuracies: Reuters contacted mayoral offices and found many do not identify as Muslim, and Full Fact warns that civic mayors’ religion is not a matter of public record [1] [2].
2. Two mayor types that break simple counting
The core reason different tallies diverge is institutional: England has directly-elected executive mayors and many more civic (ceremonial or "lord") mayors, and most fact-checkers emphasize that directly-elected roles are few while civic mayors are numerous and transient; therefore a simple headcount of "mayors" without distinguishing types produces misleading conclusions [2] [3].
3. What can be reliably identified — a small number of notable Muslim mayors
Fact-checking research and public records do identify individual Muslim mayors in England — for instance Sadiq Khan is openly Muslim and is mayor of London, and Oldham’s mayor was identified as Muslim in reporting — but these examples are exceptions that received attention rather than evidence of a broad, exponential trend, and other offices named in viral claims were checked and found not to be held by people who identify as Muslim [3] [1].
4. Data gaps and methodological limits that obscure trendlines
Assessing change over two decades is impeded by incomplete data: religion is not systematically recorded for many civic mayors, directories of Muslim officeholders are imperfect, and some claims rest on counting civic mayors whose faith is not public record; as Full Fact notes, the larger pool of civic mayors — past and present — makes retrospective counting unreliable unless researchers use explicitly self-declared religion or authoritative bios [2]. Reuters’ fact-checking illustrates the practical consequence: offices had to be contacted individually to confirm identity because no central register exists [1].
5. Reading the modest trend and its narratives
Taken together, the evidence supports a conclusion of modest gains in visibility — a few high-profile Muslim politicians in mayoral roles — rather than a sweeping increase in the number of Muslim mayors across England; moreover, viral posts have amplified perception of a larger shift by conflating office types and assuming readily countable religious identities where none are publicly recorded [1] [3] [2]. Alternative viewpoints exist: some sources and commentators argue that representation has meaningfully increased among local leaders, but that claim requires careful, transparent counting methods that the fact-checks show are often lacking in viral narratives [3] [2].
6. Verdict and limits of reporting
The number of Muslim mayors in England has not demonstrably exploded over the last twenty years; there are clear, high-profile examples of Muslim individuals serving as mayors, but quantitative claims of many more Muslim mayors are undermined by definitional and data problems, and fact-checkers have labelled broad viral lists mostly false or misleading [1] [3] [2]. This assessment is constrained by the absence of a comprehensive, public dataset listing religious affiliation of civic mayors; without such a dataset, precise counts and long-term trendlines remain uncertain [2].