February 4, 2026
The CSPII research team analyzed the official registry data of Islamic organizations in France.
Key insights include:
- 4,351 active Islamic organizations registered nationwide in 2024
- Presence in 1,014 municipalities (out of ~34,900) in 2024
- First registration of an Islamic organization was in 1901
- Continuous rise since the 1980s
- Most active registration year is 2012, with 204 new organizations
The maps below illustrate how Islamic infrastructure has spread across France over time, with increasing representation in both major cities and smaller towns.
The top 3 municipalities in France by total number of Islamic organizations by the end of 2024 were:
- Paris – 441 organizations
- Montpellier – 152 organizations
- Rennes – 77 organizations
Here is a brief explanation of the research methodology:
- Data was downloaded from the French National Registry of Associations (Répertoire National des Associations RNA, https://www.data.gouv.fr/datasets/repertoire-national-des-associations), published on French public data platform. That registry contains data (including public name, ID, short description, address, dates of registration and dissolution) of all associations registered in France since 1901. The registry is maintained and updated on a regular basis and is a reliable and official source of information.
- Islamic organizations had been identified as those containing a one or more keywords in the name or description. According to CSPII methodology, we used the following French and English keywords: "islam","islamique","islamiques", "musulman", "musulmane", "mosquee", "halal", "waqf", "islamic", "muslim", "moslem", "mosque", "masjid" , "awaqf".
- The generated list was verified by a CSPII expert to ensure that non-Islamic organizations were not listed. As a result, 6 organizations were qualified as “false positives” and excluded from the list.
- The bubble maps depict the number of Islamic organizations in France in different years.
See the interactive maps to explore the growth of Islamic organizations:
https://www.cspii.org/learn-political-islam/maps/ .