Which UK regions outside cities have significant Muslim populations?
Executive summary
Muslim populations in the UK are heavily concentrated outside London in broad regions of the Midlands, the North (especially Yorkshire and the North West), and parts of Lancashire and Greater Manchester, with notable pockets in non-metropolitan towns and peri‑urban areas such as Bradford, Oldham and Savile Town in Dewsbury [1] [2] England" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[3]. National-level analyses and community reports stress internal diversity and socio‑economic clustering—nearly half of British Muslims live in England’s most deprived areas—while also noting that most of the community remains urban or peri‑urban rather than dispersed into sparsely populated rural counties [4] [5].
1. The Midlands and West Midlands: a regional heartland beyond a single city
Beyond Birmingham itself, the wider Midlands region contains sizeable Muslim populations spread across towns and commuter belts, making the West Midlands and broader Midlands a regional concentration rather than solely an urban phenomenon; large shares of British Muslims live in this region according to demographic summaries and census-based reports [5] [4].
2. Yorkshire and the Humber: dense communities in towns and former industrial districts
Yorkshire and the Humber emerges in multiple datasets as a region with significant Muslim communities concentrated not only in Bradford and Leeds but in smaller post‑industrial towns and suburbs where historic South Asian migration settled, with localities like Savile Town in Dewsbury cited as almost entirely Muslim in some accounts [3] [2].
3. North West England and Lancashire: towns with high local proportions
The North West, including Greater Manchester and Lancashire, registers high localised Muslim populations in boroughs and towns such as Oldham and Blackburn, illustrating how relatively small metropolitan areas and large towns can have substantial Muslim majorities or pluralities even when surrounding rural areas do not [2] [5].
4. Patterns: urban concentration with peri‑urban and town spillover
Multiple sources emphasize that while nearly half of British Muslims live in London, the remainder cluster in other urban centres and their surrounding towns—creating regional belts in the Midlands, North West and Yorkshire where Muslims form significant shares of local populations, particularly in inner towns and outer council estates rather than remote countryside [1] [2] [5].
5. Socio‑economic geography: deprivation and younger demographics shape settlement
Analyses drawing on the 2021 census and community studies underline that British Muslim communities are younger on average and disproportionately located in more deprived areas—39% live in the most deprived decile—so regional maps of Muslim population size are inseparable from patterns of housing, employment and migration that cluster in specific post‑industrial towns and urban peripheries [4] [5].
6. Local examples that matter: Bradford, Oldham, Blackburn, Dewsbury
While national reporting often highlights big cities, several smaller towns and boroughs are repeatedly named as having “significant” Muslim populations—Bradford, Oldham, Blackburn and areas like Savile Town in Dewsbury—demonstrating that outside of major metropolitan cores, non‑city localities can still host dense Muslim communities [2] [3].
7. Caveats, sources and agendas: what the data does and does not show
Public sources vary in focus and intent—Wikipedia compiles census summaries [1] [3], the Muslim Council of Britain frames social and socio‑economic context from 2021 census data [4], while commercial or advocacy sites present broader narratives and contemporary guides that may emphasise vibrancy or growth [5] [2]; none of the supplied sources provides fine‑grained, nationally comprehensive rural vs. small‑town breakdowns, so claims about “rural Muslim populations” cannot be definitively supported from the material provided [4] [5].
8. Bottom line—where “outside cities” matters
For practical purposes, the regions outside London with the most significant Muslim populations are the Midlands (including West Midlands), Yorkshire and the Humber, and the North West (including Lancashire and Greater Manchester), with pronounced local concentrations in towns and boroughs such as Bradford, Oldham, Blackburn and Dewsbury rather than in isolated rural counties; this pattern is consistent across census summaries, regional statistics and community reports though precise rural dispersion is not detailed in the supplied sources [1] [2] [4].