2.(C) The 2001 UK census showed a population of 1.6 million Muslims. In April 2008, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that HMG estimated the Muslim population at 2 million or 3.3% of the UK population. This represented an increase of 400,000 in seven years. The 1951 census showed a population of Muslims of less than 22,000. Therefore between 1951 and 2001 (50 years) there had been an annualized increase of 31,500 Muslims in the UK, but in the seven year period between 2001 and 2008 there was an actual annualized increase of 57,000. The rate of increase as measured by decades has slowed, however. In 1961, the population of Muslims in the UK was 2.5 times what it had been in 1951. Between 1961 and 1971 the Muslim population multiplied an astonishing 5 times its previous population. Thereafter the Muslim population's rate of growth began to slow. In 1981 it was only 2.4 times the 1971 population (this was attributed to the ending of unlimited Commonwealth immigration in the early 1970's). In 1991 it was only 1.7 times what it had been in 1981; and between 1991 and 2001 it only grew by 1.6 times the previous population. Based on a projected 2011 population of 2.2 million, the rate of increase between 2001 and 2011 is estimated to be 1.4 times the 2001 figure. In overall numbers, the UK Muslim population is rapidly increasing, but its rate of growth is slowly decreasing. Changes to UK visa rules announced in 2008 may slow this rate even more.