Religion
France has not collected religious or ethnic data in its censuses since the beginning of the Third Republic, but the country's predominant faith has been Roman Catholicism since the early Middle Ages. Church attendance is fairly low, however, and the proportion of the population that is not religious has grown over the past century. A 2004 IFOP survey tallied that 44% of the French people did not believe in God; contrast with 20% in 1947. A study by the CSA Institute conducted in 2003 with a sample of 18,000 people found that 27% considered themselves atheists, and 65.3% Roman Catholic, while 12.7% (8,065,000 people) belonged to some other religion.
There are an estimated 5 million Muslims, one million Protestants, 600,000 Buddhists, 491,000 Jews, and 150,000 Orthodox Christians as of 2000 figures. The last figure does not appear to include high numbers of Apostolic Armenians present in the Paris and Marseille conurbations. The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2004 . estimated the French Hindu population at 181,312.
These studies did not ask the respondents if they were practicing or how often they did practice if they were active in the laity.
According to a poll conducted in 2001 for French Catholic magazine La Croix, numbers are: Roman Catholic 69% (only 10% being listed as regular churchgoers), Agnostic or Atheist 22%, Protestant (Calvinist, Lutheran, Anglican and Evangelical) 2%, others are 7%.
According to CIA World Factbook the numbers are : Roman Catholic 83%–88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 7%, unaffiliated 4%.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of France
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries of that description from [France] would avail more than those who should endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“There is not enough religion in the world even to destroy religion.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The great end of all religion ... is to purify our hearts—and conquer our passions—and in a word, to make us wiser and better men—better neighbours—better citizens—and better servants of GOD.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)