Religion in the European Union
Religion in the European Union is diverse. The largest religion in the EU is
Over the last several decades, religious practice has been on the decline in a process of
The countries with the most people reporting no belief in any sort of spirit, god, or higher power are France (40%), Czech Republic (37%), Sweden (34%), Netherlands (30%), Estonia (29%), Germany (27%), Belgium (27%) and Slovenia (26%).[5] The most religious countries are Romania (1% non-believers) and Malta (2% non-believers).[5] Across the EU, belief is more common with older age and is higher amongst women, those with only basic education, and those "positioning themselves on the right of the political scale (57%)".[7]
Church and state
The EU is a secular body with a separation of church and state. There are no formal ties to any religion and no mention of any specific religion in any current or proposed treaty.[8] Discussion over the European Constitution's draft texts and later the Treaty of Lisbon have included proposals to mention Christianity and/or God in the preamble of the document. This call has been supported by Christian religious leaders, most notably the Pope.[9] However, the explicit inclusion of a link to religion faced opposition from secularists, and the final Constitution referred to Europe's "Religious and Humanist inheritance". A second attempt to include Christianity in the treaty was undertaken in 2007 with the drafting of the Treaty of Lisbon. Angela Merkel promised the Pope that she would use her influence during Germany's presidency to try to include a reference to Christianity and God in the treaty. This has provoked opposition, not least in the German press,[10] and as this inclusion may have caused problems in reaching a final agreement, this attempt was given up.[11] Of the Union's 27 states, only three have an official state religion, these being Denmark (Church of Denmark), Greece (Church of Greece), and Malta (Catholic Church). Some other churches have a close relationship with the state.[12] Until 2000, the Church of Sweden was the state church of Sweden.
In the secularising EU, the
Due to the rise of other religions, and some intolerance towards them, the
Secularisation
In 2012, the highest ever number of births outside of marriage were recorded in the European Union, at 40%,[21] with first-births out of wedlock and cohabitation figures being even higher. Seven EU countries recorded a majority of births outside of marriage – Estonia (59% in 2014[22]), Bulgaria (58.8% in 2014[23]), Slovenia (58.3% in 2014[24]), France (57.4% in 2014[25]), Sweden (54.4% in 2013[26]), Belgium (52.3% in 2012[26]), and Denmark (51.5% in 2013[26]). These countries tend to be some of the less religious ones.[27]
Religiosity
Most EU countries have experienced a decline in church attendance, as well as a decline in the number of people professing belief. The 2010 Eurobarometer survey found that, on average, 51% of the citizens of the EU Member States state that they believe there is a god, 26% state that they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force and 20% state that they don't believe there is any sort of spirit, god or life force. 3% declined to answer.[5] According to a recent study (Dogan, Mattei, Religious Beliefs in Europe: Factors of Accelerated Decline), 47% of French people declared themselves as agnostics in 2003. The situation of religion varies between countries in European Union. A decrease in religiousness and church attendance in Western Europe (especially in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Luxembourg and Czech Republic) has been noted and called "Post-Christian Europe". There has also been a sharp reduction in church attendance since 2005 in Poland, the most populous Eastern European EU member state, although with church attendance at 41.5% in 2009,[28] it is still well above the single-digit figures that are so typical for Sunday service attendance in other EU countries.
The following is a list of European countries ranked by religiosity, based on the rate of belief, according to the 2010 Eurobarometer survey. The 2010 Eurobarometer survey asked whether the person "believes there is a God", "believes there is some sort of spirit or life force" or "doesn't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force".
Country | "I believe there is a God" |
"I believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" |
"I don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force" |
"Declined to answer" |
---|---|---|---|---|
Malta | 94% | 4% | 2% | 0% |
Romania | 92% | 7% | 1% | 0% |
Cyprus | 88% | 8% | 3% | 1% |
Greece | 79% | 16% | 4% | 1% |
Poland | 79% | 14% | 5% | 2% |
Italy | 74% | 20% | 6% | 0% |
Ireland | 70% | 20% | 7% | 3% |
Portugal | 70% | 15% | 12% | 3% |
Croatia | 69% | 22% | 7% | 2% |
Slovakia | 63% | 23% | 13% | 1% |
Spain | 59% | 20% | 19% | 2% |
Lithuania | 47% | 37% | 12% | 4% |
Luxembourg | 46% | 22% | 24% | 8% |
Hungary | 45% | 34% | 20% | 1% |
Austria | 44% | 38% | 12% | 6% |
Germany | 44% | 25% | 27% | 4% |
Latvia | 38% | 48% | 11% | 3% |
United Kingdom | 37% | 33% | 25% | 5% |
Belgium | 37% | 31% | 27% | 5% |
Bulgaria | 36% | 43% | 15% | 6% |
Finland | 33% | 42% | 22% | 3% |
Slovenia | 32% | 36% | 26% | 6% |
Denmark | 28% | 47% | 24% | 1% |
Netherlands
|
28% | 39% | 30% | 3% |
France | 27% | 27% | 40% | 6% |
Estonia | 18% | 50% | 29% | 3% |
Sweden | 18% | 45% | 34% | 3% |
Czech Republic | 16% | 44% | 37% | 3% |
EU28
|
51% | 26% | 20% | 3% |
Religious affiliation
Region | Catholic | Orthodox | Protestant | Other Christian | Total Christians | Non-Believer / Agnostic | Atheist | Muslim |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Austria | 66.5% | 2.2% | 7.2% | 1.9% | 77.8% | 15.4% | 4.1% | 1.5% |
Belgium | 52.9% | 1.6% | 2.1% | 4.1% | 60.7% | 17.1% | 14.9% | 5.2% |
Bulgaria | 1.6% | 83.3% | 0.1% | 0.8% | 85.8% | 3.3% | 2.3% | 7.7% |
Cyprus | 1.3% | 96.3% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 98.4% | 1.1% | 0.5% | 0.0% |
Croatia | 84.2% | 2.3% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 86.7% | 6.6% | 3.6% | 1.3% |
Czech Republic | 27.1% | 0.2% | 1.0% | 3.2% | 31.5% | 38.6% | 25.8% | 0.0% |
Denmark | 1.2% | 2.2% | 60.0% | 8.8% | 72.2% | 12.5% | 13.2% | 0.8% |
Estonia | 2.8% | 23.2% | 9.0% | 23.6% | 58.6% | 16.6% | 22.2% | 0.2% |
Finland | 0.1% | 2.0% | 69.7% | 7.4% | 79.2% | 12.7% | 6.5% | 0.5% |
France | 47.8% | 0.6% | 1.8% | 4.1% | 54.3% | 17.6% | 22.8% | 3.3% |
Western Germany
|
37.1% | 0.6% | 36.5% | 7.2% | 81.4% | 6.7% | 7.4% | 2.8% |
Eastern Germany
|
7.1% | 2.1% | 19.2% | 8.8% | 37.2% | 27.0% | 34.1% | 0.0% |
Total Germany[32] | 31.1% | 0.9% | 33.1% | 7.5% | 72.6% | 10.7% | 12.8% | 2.2% |
Greece | 0.4% | 92.9% | 0.1% | 1.0% | 94.4% | 1.9% | 1.6% | 1.2% |
Hungary | 60.3% | 1.1% | 5.1% | 8.1% | 74.6% | 18.5% | 2.7% | 0.3% |
Ireland | 80.7% | 0.7% | 1.8% | 4.3% | 87.5% | 5.8% | 4.6% | 0.8% |
Italy | 77.8% | 4.9% | 0.6% | 1.3% | 84.6% | 8.1% | 4.3% | 0.1% |
Latvia | 26.2% | 24.0% | 16.6% | 9.9% | 76.7% | 17.3% | 4.7% | 1.2% |
Lithuania | 87.7% | 3.6% | 0.5% | 0.9% | 92.7% | 4.2% | 2.6% | 0.0% |
Luxembourg | 64.8% | 3.5% | 3.6% | 0.7% | 69.8% | 11.2% | 10.3% | 2.1% |
Malta | 95.0% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 95.9% | 1.1% | 3.0% | 0.0% |
Netherlands
|
21.9% | 1.9% | 17.8% | 6.2% | 47.8% | 39.6% | 9.2% | 1.4% |
Poland | 90.7% | 0.2% | 1.0% | 0.4% | 92.3% | 2.2% | 3.6% | 0.2% |
Portugal | 85.8% | 0.2% | 1.1% | 1.6% | 88.7% | 8.2% | 2.3% | 0.1% |
Romania | 5.3% | 89.9% | 3.4% | 1.0% | 99.6% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
Slovakia | 73.1% | 2.2% | 6.2% | 2.2% | 83.7% | 5.0% | 7.4% | 0.0% |
Slovenia | 66.6% | 0.9% | 1.5% | 0.2% | 69.2% | 6.6% | 16.5% | 2.7% |
Spain | 64.2% | 1.4% | 0.8% | 2.2% | 68.6% | 17.0% | 10.9% | 0.6% |
Sweden | 1.6% | 0.9% | 36.5% | 8.6% | 47.6% | 31.0% | 19.0% | 1.2% |
Great Britain | 12.7% | 9.6% | 14.7% | 19.2% | 56.2% | 20.6% | 11.8% | 4.7% |
Northern Ireland | 33.3% | 1.3% | 14.7% | 42.4% | 91.7% | 7.6% | 2.4% | 0.7% |
EU28
|
45.3% | 9.6% | 11.1% | 5.6% | 71.6% | 13.6% | 10.4% | 1.8% |
Diversity
It was estimated that the Union's Muslim population in 2009 was 13 million people.
Judaism has had a long history in Europe going back to the Roman Empire. Prior to
Following the nationalization of the former British colonies in the 1960s and 1970s, many Hindus migrated to Europe from India and East Africa, often with British passports allowing them to pursue a future in Britain (which is no longer part of the EU). The Netherlands has also been a top destination for migrating Hindus, worldwide. Many Hindus who originally arrived in the country did not come directly from places like India, however. Hindus began arriving in the Netherlands in larger numbers beginning in the 1970s. This group came from Suriname, which was a Dutch colony up until 1975. Many more Hindus came in another wave of migration starting in the early 1980s spurred by the conflict in Sri Lanka that targeted Tamils. Hindus in Europe originate from different countries and practice their faith in different ways, depending on the group of Hinduism they belong to.[40] As of 2021, there are greater than 450,000 Hindus in various EU member states.[41]
See also
- Religion in Europe
- Culture of the European Union
- Fundamental Rights Agency
- Holy See–European Union relations
- Christianity in Europe
- Judaism in Europe
- Islam in Europe
- List of religious populations
- Major world religions
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