Religion in Romania

Christianity is the main religion in Romania, with Romanian Orthodoxy being its largest denomination.

Romania is a secular state and freedom of religion is enshrined in the nation's constitution.

Overview[edit]

Romania is one of the most religious of European countries^[2] and the majority of the country's citizens are Orthodox Christians. Romania is a secular state, and it has no state religion.

The Romanian state officially recognizes 18 religions and denominations.^[3] 86.53% of the country's stable population identified as part of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the 2011 census (see also: History of Christianity in Romania). Other major Christian denominations include the Catholic Church (both Latin Catholicism (4.62%) and Greek Catholicism (0.8%–3.3%)), Calvinism (3.19%), and Pentecostal denominations (1.92%). This amounts to approximately 99% of the population identifying as Christian.^[4] Romania also has a small but historically significant Muslim minority of around 44,000 people, concentrated in Northern Dobruja, who are mostly of Crimean Tatar and Turkish ethnicity. According to the 2011 census data, there are also approximately 3,500 Jews, around 21,000 atheists and about 19,000 people not identifying with any religion. The 2011 census numbers are based on a stable population of 20,121,641 people and exclude a portion of about 6% due to unavailable data.^[5]

According to the 2022 census, 76,215 people, approximately 0.4% of the total population, indicated that their religion was Islam.^[6]

Anti-religious campaign of Communist Romania

Religion by country

Religion in Europe

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, Religion and Politics in Post-communist Romania, Oxford University Press, 2007. 0-19-530853-0

ISBN

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Religion and Politics in Post-Communist Romania," in Quo Vadis Eastern Europe? Religion, State, Society and Inter-religious Dialogue after Communism, ed. by Ines A. Murzaku (Bologna, Italy: University of Bologna Press, 2009), pp. 221–235.

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Politics, National Symbols and the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral," Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 58, no. 7 (November 2006), pp. 1119–1139.

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Pulpits, Ballots and Party Cards: Religion and Elections in Romania," Religion, State and Society, vol. 33, no 4 (December 2005), pp. 347–366.

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "The Devil's Confessors: Priests, Communists, Spies and Informers," East European Politics and Societies, vol. 19, no. 4 (November 2005), pp. 655–685.

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Religious Education in Romania," Communist and Post-Communist Studies, vol. 38, no. 3 (September 2005), pp. 381–401.

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Religion, Politics and Sexuality in Romania," Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 57, no. 2 (March 2005), pp. 291–310.

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "The Romanian Orthodox Church and Post-Communist Democratization", Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 52, no. 8 (December 2000), pp. 1467–1488, republished in East European Perspectives, vol. 3, no. 4 (22 February 2001), available online at , and vol. 3, no. 5 (7 March 2001), available online at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1342525.html.

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1342524.html

Flora, Gavril; and Georgina Szilagyi; Victor Roudometof (April 2005). "Religion and national identity in post-communist Romania". . 7 (1): 35–55. doi:10.1080/14613190500036917. S2CID 155517149.