Christian share of the Croation population drops in 2021
Roman Catholics attend a mass at the Catholic Church St. Anton Padovanski in Zagreb, Croatia. Photo EPA, Antonio Bat
Southern Europe
The number of people that belongs to a Christian denomination dropped in 2021 in Croatia. Especially the number of people who say they belong to the Roman Catholic Church declined. In contrast, the number of atheists and agnostics in the country grew.
The total number of Catholic believers in Croatia amounted to 3,057,735 people. That is about 78.97 per cent of the total population. In 2011, there were still 3,697,143 who declared themselves to be of the Roman Catholic faith. That means the Roman Catholic share of the population decreased by 7.3 per cent in 10 years, Pev.com reports.
Also, other Christian denominations have to deal with the loss of churchgoers. The number of Orthodox Christians fell by 32 per cent from 190,144 believers to 128,395 between 2011 and 2021.
It is remarkable that, while most Christian denominations shrank, the number of “other Christians” increased from 12,961 in 2011 to 186,960 in 2021. According to tportal, this group of people refers to those who call themselves Christian but do not identify themselves with the category of Protestants.
Sociologist Siniša Zrinščak thinks that the increase in this group is not because more people became members of a Christian minority group. Instead, he explains, this might be because more and more people do not want to identify with any community. However, he adds that more research is needed to confirm this hypothesis.
Zrinščak is not surprised by the decline of most Christian denominations. He thinks this is in line with what happens in other countries where people leave church institutions. “However, this does not mean that Croatia is not still a highly religious country.”
Yet, the number of atheists and agnostics is growing. In 2011, 32,518 people identified themselves as such; in 2021, this number rose to 163,375.
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