Serbia has been traditionally a Christian country since the Christianization of Serbs by Clement of Ohrid and Saint Naum in the 9th century. The dominant confession is Eastern Orthodoxy in the fold of Serbian Orthodox Church.
During the Ottoman rule of the Balkans, Sunni Islam established itself in the territories of Serbia, mainly in southern regions of Raška and Preševo Valley, as well as in what is today the disputed territory of Kosovo and Metohija. The Catholic Church has roots in the country since the presence of Hungarians in Vojvodina (mainly in the northern part of the province), while Protestantism arrived in the 18th and 19th centuries with the settlement of Slovaks in Vojvodina.
1921 [2] | 1953 [3] | 1991 [3] | 2002 [4] [3] | 2011 [3] | 2022 [5] | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
Eastern Orthodox | 3,321,090 | 75.9 | 4,422,330 | 71.7 | 6,347,026 | 81.8 | 6,371,584 | 85.0 | 6,079,395 | 84.6 | 5,387,426 | 81.1 |
Catholic | 751,429 | 17.16 | 607,612 | 9.85 | 496,226 | 6.4 | 410,976 | 5.48 | 356,957 | 4.97 | 257,269 | 3.87 |
Protestant | no data | no data | 111,556 | 1.81 | 86,894 | 1.12 | 78,646 | 1.05 | 71,284 | 0.99 | 54,678 | 0.82 |
Other Christian | 33,257 | 0.54 | 1,381 | 0.02 | 2,191 | 0.03 | 3,211 | 0.04 | 59,346 | 0.89 | ||
"Christian" | 12,882 | 0.17 | 45,083 | 0.63 | ||||||||
Christians | 4,072,519 | 93,06 | 5,174,755 | 83,90 | 6,931,527 | 89,34 | 6,876,279 | 91,73 | 6,555,930 | 91,23 | 5,758,719 | 86,68 |
Muslim | 97,672 | 2.23 | 155,657 | 2.52 | 224,120 | 2.89 | 239,658 | 3.2 | 222,829 | 3.1 | 278,212 | 4.19 |
Jewish | 26,464 | 0.6 | 108,303 | 0.02 | 740 | 0.01 | 785 | 0.01 | 578 | 0.01 | 602 | 0.01 |
Eastern religions | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | 240 | 0.00 | 1,237 | 0.02 | 1,207 | 0.02 |
Irreligious / Atheist | no data | no data | 826,954 | 13.4 | 159,642 | 2.06 | 40,068 | 0.53 | 80,053 | 1.11 | 74,139 | 1.12 |
Agnostic | 4,010 | 0.06 | 8,654 | 0.13 | ||||||||
Declined to answer | 197,031 | 2.63 | 220,735 | 3.07 | 169,486 | 2.55 | ||||||
Other | 181,940 | 4.16 | 1,796 | 0.03 | 13,982 | 0.18 | 6,649 | 0.09 | 1,776 | 0.02 | 500 | 0.01 |
Unknown | 10,768 | 0.17 | 429,560 | 5.54 | 137,291 | 1.83 | 99,714 | 1.39 | 355,484 | 5.35 | ||
Total | 4,378,595 | 100 | 6,171,013 | 100 | 7,759,571 | 100 | 7,498,001 | 100 | 7,186,862 | 100 | 6,647,003 | 100 |
Most Serbians are adherents of the Serbian Orthodox Church, while the Romanian Orthodox Church is also present in parts of Vojvodina inhabited by an ethnic Romanian minority. Besides Serbs, other Eastern Orthodox Christians include Montenegrins, Romanians and Vlachs, Macedonians, Bulgarians, and majority of Roma.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity predominates throughout most of Serbia. It is less prevalent in several municipalities and cities near borders with neighboring countries, where adherents of Islam or Catholicism are more numerous, and two predominantly Protestant municipalities in Vojvodina. Eastern Orthodoxy also predominates in most of Serbia's large cities, except for Subotica (mostly Catholic) and Novi Pazar (mostly Muslim).
The identity of ethnic Serbs was historically largely based on Eastern Orthodox Christianity and on the Serbian Orthodox Church, to the extent that there are claims[ by whom? ] that those not among its faithful are not Serbs. However, the conversion of the south Slavs from paganism to Christianity took place before the Great Schism, the split between the Greek East and the Latin West. After the Schism, generally speaking, those Christians who lived within the Eastern Orthodox sphere of influence became "Eastern Orthodox" and those who lived within the Catholic sphere of influence, under Rome as the patriarchal see of the West, became "Catholic". Some ethnologists consider that the distinct Serb and Croat identities relate to religion rather than ethnicity. Since the second half of the 19th century, some Serbs have converted to Protestantism, while historically some Serbs also were Latin Catholic (especially in Dalmatia) or Eastern Catholic.
Catholicism is present mostly in the northern part of Vojvodina, notably in the municipalities with a Hungarian ethnic majority (Bačka Topola, Mali Iđoš, Kanjiža, Senta, Ada, Čoka), the multi-ethnic city of Subotica, and the multi-ethnic municipality of Bečej. It is represented mainly by the following ethnic groups: Hungarians, Croats, Bunjevci, Germans, Slovenes, Czechs, etc. A smaller number of Roma people, Slovaks and Serbs are also Catholic. The ethnic Rusyns and a smaller part of the ethnic Ukrainians are primarily Eastern Rite Catholics.
The largest percentage of Protestant Christians in Serbia on the municipal level is in the municipalities of Bački Petrovac and Kovačica, where an absolute or relative majority of the population are ethnic Slovaks (most of whom are adherents of Protestant Christianity). Some members of other ethnic groups (especially Serbs in absolute terms and Hungarians and Germans in proportional terms) are also adherents of various forms of Protestant Christianity.
There are various Protestant groups in the country, including Methodists, Seventh-day Adventists, and Evangelical Baptists (Nazarene). Many of these groups are situated in the culturally diverse province of Vojvodina. Protestantism (mostly in its Nazarene form) started to spread among Serbs in Vojvodina in the last decades of the 19th century. Before World War II, the number of Protestants in the region was larger.
According to the 2011 census, the largest Protestant communities were recorded in the municipalities of Kovačica (11,349) and Bački Petrovac (8,516), as well as in Stara Pazova (4,940) and the second largest Serbian city Novi Sad (8,499), which are predominantly Eastern Orthodox. [6] While Protestants from Kovačica, Bački Petrovac, and Stara Pazova are mostly Slovaks and members of the Slovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Serbia, services in most of the Protestant churches in Novi Sad are performed in Serbian. [7]
With the arrival of the Ottoman Empire, some Serbs converted to Islam. This was particularly, but not wholly, so in Ottoman Bosnia. The best known Muslim Serb is probably either Mehmed Paša Sokolović or Meša Selimović.
Today, Islam is mostly present in southwest Serbia, in the regions of Sandžak and Raška (notably in the city of Novi Pazar and municipalities of Tutin and Sjenica), as well as in parts of southern Serbia (municipalities of Preševo and Bujanovac). Ethnic groups whose members are mostly adherents of Islam are: Bosniaks, ethnic Muslims, Albanians, and Gorani. A significant number of Roma people are also adherents of Islam. Predominantly Muslim Albanians who boycotted the census in 2011 decided to participate in 2022 census.
Adherents belong to one of two communities – Islamic Community of Serbia or the Islamic Community in Serbia.
As of 2011, out of 787 declared Jews in Serbia, 578 stated their religion as Judaism, mostly in the cities of Belgrade (286), Novi Sad (84), Subotica (75) and Pančevo (31). [6] The only remaining functioning synagogue in Serbia is the Belgrade Synagogue. There are also small numbers of Jews in Zrenjanin and Sombor, with isolated families scattered throughout the rest of Serbia.
About 1.1% of the Serbian population is atheist. Religiosity was lowest in Novi Beograd, with 3.5% of population being atheists (compare to whole of Belgrade's and Novi Sad's 1.5%) and highest in rural parts of the country, where atheism in most municipalities went below 0.01%. [8]
In a 2009 Gallup poll, 44% of respondents in Serbia answered 'no' to the question "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" [9]
A Pew Research Center poll conducted from June 2015 to July 2016 found that 2% of Serbia were atheists, while 10% stated that they "Do not believe in God". [10]
Public schools allow religious teaching in cooperation with religious communities having agreements with the state, but attendance is not mandated. Religion classes (Serbian : verska nastava) are organized in public elementary and secondary schools, most commonly coordinated with the Serbian Orthodox Church, but also with the Catholic Church and Islamic community.
Public holidays in Serbia also include the religious festivals of Eastern Orthodox Christmas and Easter. Saint Sava Day is a working holiday celebrated as a Day of Spirituality as well as Day of Education. Believers of other faiths are legally allowed to celebrate their religious holidays.
The government of Serbia does not keep records of religiously motivated violence. However reports from religious leaders in 2022 noted that incidents have gone down, and Jewish leaders reported no incidents at all in that year. [11]
The laws of Serbia establish freedom of religion, forbid the establishment of a state religion, and outlaw religious discrimination. While registration with the government is not necessary for religious groups to practice, the government confers certain privileges to registered groups. The government maintains a two-tiered system of registered groups, split between "traditional" groups and "nontraditional" groups. Minority groups and independent observers have complained that this system comprises religious discrimination, especially as the media regularly names nontraditional groups as 'sects'. [11]
The media and individual members of the National Assembly have been criticized for using disparaging language when referring to nontraditional groups. Antisemitic literature is commonly available in bookstores, and is prevalent online. [11]
Although religious freedom was largely respected by the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia [12] [13] and Serbia's constitutions through its various incarnations as either an independent state or as part of Yugoslavia have nominally upheld religious freedom, [14] it was also the site of significant religiously and ethnically-motivated war crimes during World War II [15] and the Yugoslav Wars. [16] The government has programs established for the restitution of property confiscated by the government of Yugoslavia after World War II, and for property lost in the Holocaust.
In 2023, Freedom House rated Serbia 4 out of 4 on the question "Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private?". [17]
Sremski Karlovci is a town and municipality located in the Srem District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is situated on the banks of the Danube, 8 kilometres from Novi Sad. According to the 2011 census results, it has a population of 8,750 inhabitants. The town has traditionally been known as the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Habsburg Monarchy. It was the political and cultural capital of Serbian Vojvodina after the May Assembly and during the Revolution in 1848.
The North Bačka District is one of seven administrative districts of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It lies in the Bačka geographical region. According to the 2022 census results, it has a population of 160,163 inhabitants. The administrative center of the district is the city of Subotica.
Vojvodina's demographic history reflects its rich history and its former location at the border of the Ottoman and Habsburg empires and at the confluence of various peoples, making it a hotbed of invasion, colonization, and assimilation processes. Currently there are more than 25 ethnic groups living in Vojvodina and six official languages.
Vojvodina is a province in Republic of Serbia and one of the most ethnically diverse regions in Europe, home to 25 different ethnicities.
Temerin is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia. The town has a population of 19,613, while the municipality has a population of 28,287.
Podunavlje is the name of the Danube river basin parts located in Croatia and Serbia. Podunavlje is located on the southern edge of Pannonian Basin. In its wider meaning, the Croatian term refers to the area around the entire flow of the river Danube.
The dominant religion in Vojvodina is Orthodox Christianity, mainly represented by the Serbian Orthodox Church, while other important religions of the region are Catholic Christianity, Protestant Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Hungarians in Serbia are a recognized national minority in Serbia. According to the 2022 census, the population of ethnic Hungarians in Serbia is 184,442, constituting 2.8% of the total population, which makes them the second-largest ethnic group in the country behind Serbs and the largest minority group. The vast majority of them live in the northern autonomous province of Vojvodina, where they number 182,321 and make up 10.5% of the province's population. Almost 99% of all Hungarians in Serbia live in the province of Vojvodina. Most Hungarians in Serbia are Roman Catholics, while smaller numbers of them are Protestant. Their cultural center is located in Subotica.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity is largest religion in Montenegro, but there are also sizeable numbers of adherents of both Catholic Christianity and Islam.
Serbia is a Christian majority country, with Islam being a minority faith representing around 4.2% of the total population as per the 2022 census. Islam spread to Serbia during the three centuries of Ottoman rule. The Muslims in Serbia are mostly ethnic Bosniaks, Albanians and significant part of Muslim Roma as well as members of the smaller groups, like ethnic Muslims, Gorani and Serbs (Čitaci).
Novi Žednik is a village located in the Subotica municipality, in the North Bačka District of Serbia. It is situated in the autonomous province of Vojvodina. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 2,848 people. The village contains an elementary school, an old Orthodox church and a newly build Orthodox church as well a train station. The village has a Catholic minority who attend religious services in nearby village of Stari Žednik since there are no Catholic churches in this village. According to the 2022 census, it has 1,994 inhabitants.
Eastern Orthodoxy in Montenegro refers to adherents, religious communities, institutions and organizations of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Montenegro. It is the largest Christian denomination in the country. According to the latest census of 2011, 446,858 citizens of Montenegro (72.07%) registered as Eastern Orthodox Christians. The majority of Eastern Orthodox people in Montenegro are adherents of the Serbian Orthodox Church. A minor percentage supports the canonically unrecognized Eastern Orthodox Montenegrin Orthodox Church, which has the status of a religious non-governmental organization since its founding in 1993.
The Eastern Orthodox Church is the most widespread Christian denomination in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the second most widespread religious group in the country, following Islam and followed in turn by Roman Catholicism. Orthodox Christians in Bosnia and Herzegovina belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church. According to the CIA World Factbook, Orthodox Christians make up 30.7% of the country's population.
The most widely professed religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Islam and the second biggest religion is Christianity. Nearly all the Muslims of Bosnia are followers of the Sunni denomination of Islam; the majority of Sunnis follow the Hanafi legal school of thought (fiqh) and Maturidi theological school of thought (kalām). Bosniaks are generally associated with Islam, Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Roman Catholic Church, and Bosnian Serbs with the Serbian Orthodox Church. The State Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the entity Constitutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska provide for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this right in ethnically integrated areas or in areas where government officials are of the majority religion; the state-level Law on Religious Freedom also provides comprehensive rights to religious communities. However, local authorities sometimes restricted the right to worship of adherents of religious groups in areas where such persons are in the minority.
According to the 2022 census, Slovaks in Serbia number 41,730, constituting 0.63% of the country's population. They mainly live in Vojvodina (39,807), where they constitute the third largest ethnic group after Serbs and Hungarians. Like other ethnic Slovaks, they speak the Slovak language, but most of them are Protestant by faith and not Roman Catholic, unlike most Slovaks in Slovakia.
Protestants are the 4th largest religious group in Serbia, after Eastern Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics and Muslims. In the 2011 census, there were 71,284 Protestants in Serbia and they comprised 1% of the population of the country. Ethnic Slovaks constitute majority of Serbia's Protestant community. Some members of other ethnic groups are also adherents of various forms of Protestant Christianity.
Muftiship of Novi Sad is one of the four muftiships of the Islamic Community in Serbia. Muftiship is including territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and its seat is in Novi Sad. Administrator of the muftiship is mufti Fadil Murati.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Serbia. The Constitution of Serbia defines it as a secular state with guaranteed religious freedom. Eastern Orthodox Christians with 6,079,396 members, comprise 84.5% of country's population. The Serbian Orthodox Church is the largest and traditional church of the country; adherents of it are overwhelmingly Serbs. Public schools in Serbia allow religious teaching, most commonly with the Serbian Orthodox Church. Serbian public holidays include the religious celebrations of Eastern Orthodox Christians. Other Orthodox Christian communities in Serbia include Montenegrins, Romanians, Macedonians, and Bulgarians. The Catholic Church is prominent in north Vojvodina amongst the Hungarian minority. Protestantism is most largely found in Slovak populations within Bački Petrovac and Kovačica. Christianity first arrived in Serbia in the 9th century. It became state-religion in the 9th century when Serbia began to identify as a Christian country. In a 2011 census, 91.22% of Serbians identified as Christian.
Freedom of religion in Serbia refers to the extent to which people in Serbia are freely able to practice their religious beliefs, taking into account both government policies and societal attitudes toward religious groups.
Some countries, notably the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, had preserved enclaves of Islamic law (relating to personal...)..
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