The real stats behind 'Muslim Demographics'

INcontext have produced a helpful fact-check in response to the popular YouTube video, 'Muslim Demographics'.

Here are the main points to take away:

• Population growth in EU countries has been primarily driven by immigration, but the statistic includes all immigrants to EU countries, not just Muslims
   
• Muslims do not have fantastically high fertility rates: even in Algeria and Morocco, the two nations which send the largest numbers of Muslim immigrants to France, the fertility rate was 2.38 in 2008
   
• The Muslim population of Great Britain has grown, but not by 3000%, as the 1981 census did not survey respondents’ religious beliefs, on which the starting figure of 82,000 was based
   
• Muslim women in the Netherlands could not have accounted for '50% of all newborns', as they would have to be giving birth, on average, to about 14 to 16 times as many babies each as non-Muslim women
   
• The Belgian office of statistics points to a 2008 study which suggests the Muslim population  is 6%, so unlikely that it could account for 50% of births, as above
   
• The German government was misquoted as stating that it believed that Germany will become a Muslim state, although it is true that its population is in decline

Read the INcontext article in full, with detailed research from Snope and the Richard Knight at the BBC.

ComRes poll on refugees for BBC Newsnight

BBC NEWSNIGHT REFUGEE POLL

Poll of 1000 British adults about the migrant crisis for BBC Newsnight

Here are the key findings from the ComRes poll for the programme.

• 40% OF PUBLIC IN FAVOUR OF TAKING MORE REFUGEES
   
• Four in ten members of the public say that Britain should allow more refugees from countries such as Syria or Libya to come and live here
   
• Although taking more refugees is the most popular single option (40%), there is a combined majority against increasing numbers
   
• 31% say Britain should take fewer and an additional 26% say it should take about the same amount as it currently does
   
• There has also been a large shift in attitudes towards allowing migrants coming to Britain via an EU quota system

Read the poll and its findings in full on the ComRes website.