Muslims in North Macedonia represent just under one-third of the nation's total population according to the 2021 census, making Islam the second most widely professed religion in the country. Muslims in North Macedonia follow Sunni Islam of the Hanafi madhhab. Some northwestern and western regions of the country have Muslim majorities. A large majority of all the Muslims in the country are ethnic Albanians, with the rest being primarily Turks, Romani, Bosniaks or Torbeà ¡.
Albanian Muslims, forming roughly 25% of the nation's total population (2002 census), and most of the Muslim population, live mostly in the Polog and western regions of the country. The Turks, who make up about 4% of the country's total population (2002 census), are scattered throughout the country, but mostly in major cities, as are Roma Muslims. Bosniaks are mostly concentrated within Skopje. Muslims of Macedonian ethnicity number roughly 40,000 to 100,000 and can be found in the western part of North Macedonia in the Centar à ½upa, Debar, Struga and Plasnica areas.
The following table shows the Muslim population and percentage for each given year. The Muslim percentage in Macedonia generally decreased from 1904 to 1961 but began to rise again due to high fertility rate among Muslim families, reaching 33.33% in 2002. According to the census of 2021, the share of Muslims was 32.17% of the total (resident) population, which was slightly lower compared to 33.33% in the census of 2002.
(according to the 2021 census)