Germany Divided

Fun facts

Compare: Churches vs Mosques

Drag across the map: left, christian places of worship per 100,000 inhabitants; right, mosques and Muslim prayer rooms per 100,000 inhabitants, OpenStreetMap. Each map has its own colour key.

ChurchesMosques
Churches
< 38 per 100k≥ 38 per 100k≥ 60 per 100k≥ 81 per 100k≥ 102 per 100k≥ 124 per 100k
Mosques
< 0.8 per 100k≥ 0.8 per 100k≥ 1.3 per 100k≥ 1.8 per 100k≥ 2.4 per 100k≥ 3.0 per 100k

Former West

84 per 100k

excl. Berlin

Former East

91 per 100k

excl. Berlin

Berlin

17 per 100k

The East stands at 108% of the West's level (September 2026).

Fun fact · Our own analysis of OpenStreetMap data, not official statistics. How we measured it

Mosques

Mosques and Muslim prayer rooms per 100,000 inhabitants, OpenStreetMap, September 2026

The West has 4.4 times as many mosques per head as the East: 2.2 per 100,000 people against 0.5 on OpenStreetMap. That is 1,505 mapped Muslim places of worship in the West and 61 in all five eastern states together.

< 0.8 per 100k0.8 per 100k1.3 per 100k1.8 per 100k2.4 per 100k≥ 3.0 per 100k

Inner-German border 1949–1990 ·16 states · September 2026

Former West

2.2 per 100k

excl. Berlin

Former East

0.5 per 100k

excl. Berlin

Berlin

1.8 per 100k

The East stands at 23% of the West's level (September 2026).

By state

Former WestFormer EastBerlin
  1. Bremen3.5 per 100k
  2. Hessen3.1 per 100k
  3. Nordrhein-Westfalen2.9 per 100k
  4. Rheinland-Pfalz2.3 per 100k
  5. Hamburg2.0 per 100k
  6. Baden-Württemberg2.0 per 100k
  7. Saarland1.9 per 100k
  8. Berlin1.8 per 100k
  9. Schleswig-Holstein1.6 per 100k
  10. Niedersachsen1.6 per 100k
  11. Bayern1.6 per 100k
  12. Sachsen0.8 per 100k
  13. Sachsen-Anhalt0.5 per 100k
  14. Thüringen0.5 per 100k
  15. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern0.3 per 100k
  16. Brandenburg0.2 per 100k

September 2026

How we measured this

We counted every place of worship in OpenStreetMap tagged religion=muslim, which includes purpose-built mosques and prayer rooms in ordinary buildings as far as mappers have recorded them, and divided by the population on 31 December 2025. We counted with the QLever SPARQL service (University of Freiburg) on the OpenStreetMap planet file of 21 September 2026; each place is assigned to the state or district whose boundary contains it. Rates are our calculation with official denominators.

  • Many prayer rooms are in back courtyards or commercial units and are not mapped.
  • OpenStreetMap is compiled by volunteers. Coverage in Germany is good but not complete, and it varies with how active local mappers are.
  • Our counts are released under the Open Database License (ODbL), as OpenStreetMap requires.

Notes & caveats

  • For comparison, Christian places of worship: 91 per 100,000 in the East, 84 in the West. The gap follows migration history: the West recruited "guest workers" from Turkey from 1961, the GDR did not.
Show the table
StateSideSeptember 2026
Saarlandwest1.9 per 100k
Berlinberlin1.8 per 100k
Brandenburgeast0.2 per 100k
Mecklenburg-Vorpommerneast0.3 per 100k
Sachseneast0.8 per 100k
Sachsen-Anhalteast0.5 per 100k
Thüringeneast0.5 per 100k
Schleswig-Holsteinwest1.6 per 100k
Hamburgwest2.0 per 100k
Niedersachsenwest1.6 per 100k
Bremenwest3.5 per 100k
Nordrhein-Westfalenwest2.9 per 100k
Hessenwest3.1 per 100k
Rheinland-Pfalzwest2.3 per 100k
Baden-Württembergwest2.0 per 100k
Bayernwest1.6 per 100k