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The dominant religion in Slovenia is Christianity, primarily the Catholic Church, the largest

Christian denomination A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, worsh ...

in the country. Other Christian groups having significant followings in the country include Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism ( Lutheranism).

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

, Judaism and Hinduism are small minorities in Slovenia. About 18% of the population are either agnostic or atheist.Slovenia Statistical Office
Population by religion, statistical regions
Census 2002. Religion played a significant role in the development of the Slovenian nation and of the country of Slovenia. After a centuries-long tradition of a

state church A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...

, interrupted by the periods of Protestant Reformation (in the 16th century) and post–World War II socialism (which ousted religion from the public life), a degree of separation of the state and the church has been reached in independent Slovenia. In February 2007 Slovenia passed a new Religious Freedom Act with a bias towards the Catholic Church (particularly in regard to state funding) and strict terms for the registration of new religious communities.

Religion and Beliefs

Christianity

Catholicism

The Catholic Church in Slovenia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are around 1,135,626 Catholics in the country (about 57.8% of the total population as per the 2002 Census). The country is divided into six dioceses, including two

archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

s. The diocese of

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

was elevated to an archdiocese by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. Additionally, the pope created three new sees, namely Novo Mesto,

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and Murska Sobota.

Protestantism

Protestantism is tightly-knit with the history of Slovenians, with the Slovenian language having been established in the Reformation. Primož Trubar was a leading early Slovenian author and a Protestant reformer. He contributed to the development of the

Slovenian language Slovene ( or ), or alternatively Slovenian (; or ), is a South Slavic language, a sub-branch that is part of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 2.5 million speakers worldwide (excluding speake ...

and Slovenian culture. The Reformation flourished in the 16th century, accounting for the vast majority of cultural development in Slovenian. Lutheranism was the most popular Protestant denomination among Slovenians, with minorities, most notably Calvinism. Protestantism among Slovenians was aggressively attempted to be wiped out by the

Habsburgs The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

with the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

. The Counter-Reformation was heavily deployed to the majority of Slovenian-speaking territory. Means used involved murder, extradition, book-burning and a general ban of the Slovenian language. Excluded were eastern regions (such as Prekmurje), ruled by Hungarian nobility, often Calvinist. Historically, Hungarians had taken up Lutheranism first, before gradually switching to Calvinism. They did not have a policy of extinguishing Lutheranism. Protestantism among Slovenians survived the Counter-Reformation scattered. Protestantism is a minority group of Christian denominations in the Republic of Slovenia today. The largest community of Protestant Slovenians lives in the Prekmurje region, most of them are Lutheran.

Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodoxy maintains a significant presence in the country and is practised in majority by Slovenians of

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also

* * * Old Serbian (disambiguat ...

heritage. Eastern Orthodox Christians in Slovenia are under ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana.

Islam

The

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s in Slovenia are ethnically mostly

Bosniaks The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry ...

and ethnic Muslims. In 2014, there were 48,266 Muslims in Slovenia, making up about 2.4 percent of the total population. The Muslim community of Slovenia is headed by . According to the published data from the 2002 Slovenian census, out of a total of 47,488 Muslims (2.4% of the total population) 2,804 Muslims (5.90% of the total Muslims in Slovenia) declared themselves as ethnic

Slovenian Muslims The Muslims in Slovenia are ethnically mostly Bosniaks and Muslims (South-Slavic ethnic group), ethnic Muslims. In 2014, there were 48,266 Muslims in Slovenia, making up about 2.4 percent of the total population. The Muslim community of Slovenia ...

. There are also Muslims from Central, South and Southeast Asia, who are not counted in the census because they are migrant workers.

Judaism

The small Jewish community of Slovenia ( sl, Judovska skupnost Slovenije) is estimated at 400 to 600 members, with the Jewish community of Slovenia suggesting 500 to 1000 members. Around 130 are officially registered, most of whom live in the capital, Ljubljana. The Jewish community was devastated by the

Shoah The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...

, and has never fully recovered. Until 2003, Ljubljana was the only European capital city without a Jewish place of worship.Jewish Virtual Library - Slovenia
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Hinduism

220 Hindus live in Slovenia, with 70 belonging to the Hindu Religious Community in Slovenia and 150 belonging to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon).

Atheism

A 2010 Eurobarometer poll found that 26% of the population of Slovenia stated that "I don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force". A 2021 World Population Review found that 53% of Slovenians were either non-religious or convinced atheist., title=Most Atheist Countries 2021 , url=https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-atheist-countries

Demographics

Censuses

Religiosity of Slovene citizens according to population censuses 1991, and 2002.

Surveys

* Eurobarometer 2012 found about 68% of the population declaring to be Christian, with 64% being members of the Catholic Church. Members of other Christian denominations made up 4% of the population. *

International Social Survey Programme The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a collaboration between different nations conducting surveys covering topics which are useful for social science research. The ISSP researchers develop questions which are meaningful and relevant ...

2015 found that 64.3% of the population declared to be Christian, with Catholicism being the largest denomination accounting for 62.2% of the respondents, and Eastern Orthodoxy being the second-largest sect comprising 1.5%; members of other Christian denominations made up the 0.6%. A further 34.3% declared to have no religion, and 1.5% declared to belong to other religions.

Religious freedom

Slovenia's laws guarantee the freedom of religion and establish a separation between church and state, as well as prohibiting religious discrimination and religious hatred. Religious groups may easily register with the government in order to receive some privileges, largely consisting of various forms of monetary compensation. Slovenia's laws prohibit circumcision for non-medical reasons and animal slaughtering practices that are necessary for meat to be considered

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

or halal. Members of the Jewish and Muslim communities observe these practices outside of the country (importing meat, and traveling to neighboring countries for religious circumcision) without obstruction from Slovenia's government.
International Religious Freedom Report 2017 Slovenia
', US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

References

External links

{{Religion in Europe