Religion
| Denominations | Population | % of total |
|---|---|---|
| Catholicism | 5,558,901 | 54.5 |
| Roman Catholics | 5,289,521 | 51.9 |
| Greek Catholics | 268,935 | 2.6 |
| Protestantism | 1,985,576 | 19.5 |
| Calvinists | 1,622,796 | 15.9 |
| Lutherans | 304,705 | 3.0 |
| Baptists | 17,705 | 0.2 |
| Unitarians | 6,541 | 0.1 |
| Other Protestants | 33,829 | 0.3 |
| Orthodox Christianity | 15,298 | 0.1 |
| Other Christians | 24,340 | 0.2 |
| Judaism | 12,871 | 0.1 |
| Other religions | 13,567 | 0.1 |
| Total religions | 7,610,553 | 74.6 |
| No religion | 1,483,369 | 14.5 |
| Did not wish to answer | 1,034,767 | 10.1 |
| Unknown | 69,566 | 0.7 |
| total | 10,198,315 | 100.00 |
The majority of Hungarians became Christian in the 11th century. Hungary remained predominantly Catholic until the 16th century, when the Reformation took place and, as a result, first Lutheranism, then soon afterwards Calvinism, became the religion of almost the entire population. In the second half of the 16th century, however, Jesuits led a successful campaign of counterreformation among the Hungarians. Orthodox Christianity in Hungary has been the religion mainly of some national minorities in the country, notably, Romanians, Rusyns, Ukrainians, and Serbs.
Faith Church, one of Europe's largest Pentecostal churches, is also located in Hungary. Hungary has historically been home to a significant Jewish community.
According to 2001 census data, the largest religion in Hungary is Catholicism (54.5% — Roman Catholicism 51.9%; Greek Catholicism 2.6%). There is a significant Calvinist minority (16% of the population) and smaller Lutheran (3%),Baptist (0.2%), orthodox(0.015%) and Jewish (0.1%) minorities. However, these census figures are representative of religious affiliation rather than practice; fewer than 12% of Hungarians attend religious services at least once a week and fewer than 50% at least once a year, while 30% of Hungarians do not believe in God.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Hungary
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“This is one of the paradoxes of the democratic movement—that it loves a crowd and fears the individuals who compose it—that the religion of humanity should have no faith in human beings.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“To sum up:
1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute.
2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it.
3. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“We think of religion as the symbolic expression of our highest moral ideals; we think of magic as a crude aggregate of superstitions. Religious belief seems to become mere superstitious credulity if we admit any relationship with magic. On the other hand our anthropological and ethnographical material makes it extremely difficult to separate the two fields.”
—Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945)