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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.
| Religion | census 1953 | census 1991 | census 2002 | census 2011 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Orthodox Christians | 775,722 | 45.3 | 1,170,694 | 58.1 | 1,401,475 | 69.0 | 1,491,004 | 77.2 |
| Catholic Christians | 561,617 | 32.8 | 458,683 | 22.8 | 388,313 | 19.1 | 336,691 | 17.4 |
| Protestant Christians | 105,173 | 6.2 | 78,925 | 3.9 | 72,159 | 3.6 | 64,029 | 3.3 |
| Muslims | 3,254 | 0.2 | 9,775 | 0.5 | 8,073 | 0.4 | 14,026 | 0.7% |
| Jews | 651 | / | 284 | / | 329 | 0.01% | 254 | 0.01% |
| Total | 1,712,619 | 2,013,889 | 2,031,992 | 1,916,889 | ||||
The absolute majority of the population of Vojvodina (77.2%) are adherents of Orthodox Christianity. Most of the adherents belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church, and smaller number of them to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The ethnic groups whose members are mostly adherents of Orthodox Christianity are: Serbs, Montenegrins, Romanians and Vlachs, Yugoslavs, Romani, Macedonians, Ukrainians, Russians, Greeks, etc.
The Fruška Gora, a mountain in Vojvodina, is considered by some as one of the three Holy Mountains of the Orthodox Christianity (The other two being Athos and Sinai). There are as many as sixteen Orthodox monasteries located on the Fruška Gora. During the Ottoman rule in the 16th and 17th centuries, the number of Orthodox monasteries on the Fruška Gora was as high as 35. There are also two Orthodox monasteries in the part of Syrmia that belong to Belgrade (but which historically belonged to Vojvodina), three Orthodox monasteries in the Bačka, and seven in the Banat.
The roots of Christianity in this region date back to the 3rd century when the Episcopate of Syrmia was established. This Episcopate existed until 1183, when the region of Syrmia was included in the Catholic Kingdom of Hungary. The 11th century Bulgaro-Slavic rulers of the territory of the present-day Vojvodina region, Ahtum and Sermon, were Orthodox Christians.
The Orthodox population which lived in the region was an impediment to the establishment of Catholic Church organization in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary. The Catholic inquisitor, Jacob de Marki, tried in 1483 to forcibly convert Orthodox Christians in the region to Catholicism.
With the Ottoman conquest of the region in the 16th century, the Catholic population mostly fled, and during Ottoman rule, the population of the region was mostly composed of Orthodox Christians, with some Muslims living in the cities.
At the end of the 17th century, the Muslim Ottoman Empire was replaced with the Catholic Habsburg monarchy, and during the Habsburg rule many Catholic settlers came to the region. Catholics then became the majority in the northern parts of the region, while Orthodox Christians remained the majority in the southern parts.
Catholic Christians constitute 17.4% of the population of Vojvodina. The ethnic groups whose members are mostly adherents of the Catholic Church are: Hungarians, Croats, Bunjevci, Germans, Slovenes, Czechs, Šokci, Poles, Banat Bulgarians, etc. A smaller percentage of Romani, Yugoslavs, and Slovaks are also adherents of Catholicism. The ethnic Rusyns and a smaller part of the ethnic Ukrainians are adherents of the Eastern Catholic (Uniate) Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia, of which the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Ruski Krstur is based in Ruski Krstur in Vojvodina.
Catholic Christians are mostly concentrated in the northern part of the region, notably in the municipalities with a Hungarian ethnic majority and in the multiethnic city of Subotica and multiethnic municipality of Bečej. The population of Subotica, the second largest city in Vojvodina, is 63.02% Catholic.
The Catholic population which lived in the region during the time of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary mostly fled from the region following the Ottoman conquest in the 16th century, and was replaced by Orthodox and Muslim inhabitants. A new Catholic population started to settle in the region with the establishment of Habsburg rule at the end of the 17th century. The 18th century colonizations were base for the current religious composition of Vojvodina, where there is a Catholic majority in several of the northern municipalities.
Protestant Christians makeup 3.3% of the population of Vojvodina. Most of the ethnic Slovaks 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.
The largest percentage of Protestant Christians in Vojvodina on municipal level is in the municipalities of Bački Petrovac and Kovačica, where the absolute or relative majority of the population are ethnic Slovaks.
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 Vojvodinian capital Novi Sad (8,499), which are predominately Orthodox. [1] While Protestants from Kovačica, Bački Petrovac and Stara Pazova are mostly Slovaks, members of Slovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Serbia, services in most of the Protestant churches in Novi Sad are performed in the Serbian language. [2]
Protestantism (mostly in its Nazarene form) started to spread among Serbs in Vojvodina in the last decades of the 19th century. Although, percentage of Protestants among Serbs is not large, it is the only religious form besides Orthodoxy, which is today widely spread among Serbs.
The ethnic groups whose members are mostly adherents of Islam are: ethnic Muslims, Albanians, Gorani, Bosniaks, Ashkali, and Egyptians. A smaller number of ethnic Romani are also adherents of Islam.
During Ottoman rule (16th-18th centuries), the Muslim population of the region was quite large and was mostly concentrated in the cities. Many cities of the region thus had a majority Muslim population, such as Sremska Mitrovica, which according to the 1566/69 data had a population composed of 592 Muslim and 30 Christian houses. According to the 1573 data, this city had 17 mosques and no Christian church. Following the establishment of the Habsburg rule at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, the Muslim population fled from the region. The current Muslim inhabitants of the region are mostly 20th century settlers from the Muslim areas of the former Yugoslavia.
As elsewhere in the world, the Judaism is primarily associated with ethnic Jews. In the village of Čelarevo archaeologists have also found traces of people who practiced a Torah religion. Bunardžić dated Avar-Bulgar graves excavated in Čelarevo, containing skulls with Mongolian features and Judaic symbols, to the late 8th and 9th centuries. Erdely and Vilkhnovich consider the graves to belong to the Kabars who eventually broke ties with the Khazar Empire between the 830s and 862.
Today numbering only 329 people in Vojvodina, the Jewish population of the region numbered about 19,000 before the World War II. As elsewhere in Axis-occupied Europe, those Jews who did not flee were mostly killed or deported in the war.
Sremski Karlovci is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka 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.
Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. Novi Sad is home for 367,121 inhabitants. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannonian Plain on the border of the Bačka and Syrmia geographical regions. Lying on the banks of the Danube river, the city faces the northern slopes of Fruška Gora.
Vojvodina, officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital Belgrade and the Sava and Danube Rivers. The administrative center, Novi Sad, is the second-largest city in Serbia.
Petrovaradin is a historic town in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, now a part of the city of Novi Sad. As of 2011, the urban area has 14,810 inhabitants. Lying on the right bank of the Danube, across from the main part of Novi Sad, it is built around the Petrovaradin Fortress, the historical anchor of the modern city.
Sombor is a city and the administrative center of the West Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city has a total population of 47,623, while its administrative area has 85,903 inhabitants.
Bačka or Bácska is a geographical and historical area within the Pannonian Plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east. It is divided between Serbia and Hungary. Most of the area is located within the Vojvodina region in Serbia and Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, lies on the border between Bačka and Syrmia. The smaller northern part of the geographical area is located within Bács-Kiskun County in Hungary.
The South Bačka District is one of seven administrative districts of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Geographically it lies in the southern part of Bačka and northern part of Syrmia. According to the 2011 census results, it has a population of 615,371 inhabitants. The administrative center of the district is the city of Novi Sad, which is also the capital and the largest city of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.
Bački Petrovac is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 7,452, while Bački Petrovac municipality has 13,418 inhabitants.
Sremska Kamenica is a town and urban neighborhood of Novi Sad, in Serbia.
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.
Podunavlje is the name of the Danube river basin parts located in Serbia and Croatia. Podunavlje is located on the southern edge of Pannonian Basin. In its wider meaning, the Serbo-Croatian term refers to the area around the entire flow of the river Danube.
Stara Pazova is a town and municipality located in the Srem District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 64792, while Stara Pazova municipality has 65,792 inhabitants. The entrance into town from Inđija lies on 45th parallel north, it is half-way between the North pole and the equator.
Vojvodina is an autonomous province that comprises northern Serbia. It consists of the southern part of the Pannonian Plain, mostly located north from the Danube and Sava rivers.
The Serbs of Vojvodina are the largest ethnic group in this northern province of Serbia. For centuries, Vojvodina was ruled by several European powers, but Vojvodina Serbs never assimilated into cultures of those countries. Thus, they have consistently been a recognized indigenous ethnic minority with its own culture, language and religion. According to the 2011 census, there were 1,289,635 Serbs in Vojvodina or 66.76% of the population of the province.
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 of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
According to the 2011 census, Slovaks in Serbia number 52,750, constituting 0.7% of the country's population. They mainly live in Vojvodina (50,321), 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 comprise 84.5% of country's population with 6,079,396 members. The Serbian Orthodox Church is the largest and traditional church of the country, adherents of which 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.
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