Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos has predicted that by 2037, there will be more Muslims than Christians in Cyprus.

“In the Paphos district, 57 per cent of the population are Greek Cypriots. By 2034, between 2032 and 2034, in the Paphos district, 49 per cent of the population will be Greek Cypriots,” he said in a televised interview which circulated on social media on Saturday.

“At the moment on the island of Cyprus, 60 per cent of the population are Christians and 40 per cent are Muslims. By 2037, 49 per cent of the population will be Christians and 51 per cent will be Muslims.”

He then added, “I remind you of the case of Lebanon, what is happening in Lebanon”, possibly in reference to the country’s historical sectarian issues between its native religious populations.

“In 2037, when 51 per cent will be Muslims and 49 per cent will be Christians, we will worry a little bit about where things are going,” he said.

According to Cystat, the government’s statistical service, Islam was the second-largest religion in the government-controlled areas of the island as of 2021, though the number of Muslims was only recorded as 19,534 – just over two per cent of the island’s population.

Christians, including Greek Orthodox Christians, members of the Armenian and Maronite churches, Roman Catholics, and Anglicans and Protestants, made up just shy of 78 per cent of the population – a total of 718,067 people.

There were 688,075 Greek Orthodox Christians in Cyprus as of 2021 – 75 per cent of the island’s population.

The figure for the island as a whole may be closer to Phedonos’ assessment, however, with Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel having said earlier this month that the north’s population is currently 590,000, excluding foreign students and Turkish soldiers.

The vast majority of people in the north are Muslim, though Turkish Cypriots are known to be resolutely secular.