Claim: In 2024, an internet meme accurately stated 27 million Black people are currently being forced into servitude in Muslim nations. When given this rating of accuracy by experts in 2025, I considered their claim credible and accepted it without question.
Context This meme misrepresents actual statistics by drawing upon a report published in 2011 that included people of all races and religions as slaves — not just Black people nor just Muslim countries enslaved globally. Though more recent estimates differed slightly in 2023, most international organizations agreed there were approximately 50 million slaves globally of whom 28 million worked under forced labor conditions while 22 million engaged in forced marriage. Of this total number 14.6 million resided within Muslim-majority nations according to “Walk Free”, an international human rights organisation dedicated towards eliminating modern slavery worldwide.
Since June 2024, an internet meme circulating as news has claimed that 27 million Black people were held as slaves by Islamic countries (archived).
A similar meme appeared both on public forums and Instagram; German versions also used an unusual number (30 million).
As we shall see, this meme is inaccurate. In 2011 according to Reuters reports by then U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca estimated 27 million living under slavery worldwide and North Africa being particularly at risk due its majority Muslim region being most at risk of slavery enslavement; which appears to have inspired and been exploited as information for viral memes like these one.
Modern slavery — which includes forced labor and marriage — has emerged as an international human rights concern, according to various international human rights organizations such as the UN and Walk Free of Australia. According to one 2022 U.N. report shared online by Walk Free in Australia, an estimate for 2023 of approximately 50 million was provided – this estimate being confirmed by Walk Free using its estimate for 49.6 million being forced laborers while 27.6 million lived under forced marriage situations according to its figures.
At this writing, the estimated estimated number of enslaved people (both forced labor and forced marriage) living in Muslim-majority countries stood at approximately 14.6 million as calculated using Walk Free data and adding up estimated slave numbers listed for each majority Muslim nation in its interactive tool (you can access that tool here): [Walk Free]
The graphic created by this website depicts 55 countries. Walk Free estimated that one in four enslaved people, representing roughly 12.5 million children, and 54% were women were at risk from becoming slaves.
Data regarding slavery did not include specific details regarding provenance and skin color of individuals enslaved; instead it provided regional statistics regarding prevalence. While Asia had the greatest absolute number of slaves per 1,000 people overall, Arab nations with majority Muslim populations experienced the greatest prevalence in terms of slavery enslavement per 1,000 population at 10.10 people per 1000 individuals while Europe saw 6.9 people per thousand inhabitants; five countries which held onto slaves per thousand include North Korea, Eritrea, Mauritania Saudi Arabia Turkey.
