Sociology Professor Farhad Khosrokhavar (a leading expert who has studied French prisons extensively, including in sensitive urban areas) estimates Muslims comprise roughly 40%-50% of the overall prison population nationally, with higher shares (often 50–70%+) in prisons in the Paris region or other high-immigration urban areas, these are estimates, because the French government does not record these things. The closest thing to a hard number is an older number that in 2013, about 27% of all French inmates registered for Ramadan meals (18,300 out of 67,700 prisoners), though researchers say many Muslim inmates do not formally register.
IFOP survey (November 2025): 7% of the adult French population identifies as Muslim (up from 0.5% in 1985, 4% in 2009, and 5.5% in 2016). This is based on a large, representative sample and positions Islam as France’s second-largest religion after Catholicism. There are other estimates that put the percent of the population at 8% to 9.5%.
This would imply that about 5% of the population would be Muslim in 2013, but if 27% of French inmates, that implies inmates were 5.4 times their share of the population. If today, 40% of inmates are Muslim and 7% of their population, that is still overrepresented by 5.7 times. Even if we take the highest percentage of the population that is Muslim at 9.5% and the lowest estimated share of the prison population at 40%, Muslims are still overestimate as a share of inmates at 4.2 times.
Paris Region (Île-de-France / Greater Paris Metropolitan Area) has about 14% to 16% of the population as Muslim, so the inmate population that is Muslim in that area is at least 3.125 times their share of the general population.
Sounds reasonable. Crime in the middle east is much higher than any country in Europe!
I would love to see one of the major cable news outlets interview Farhad Khosrokhavar.