Freedom of Religion in Kuwait - Religious Demography

Religious Demography

The country has an area of 6,880 square miles (17,800 km2) and a population of 3.2 million, of whom 1 million are citizens, and the rest foreign workers and their families. More than 100,000 stateless residents, known as "Bidoon (Bedoun)," either have no documentation of their citizenship or are unwilling to disclose their nationality. Estimates derived from voting records and personal status documents indicate that 70 percent of citizens, including the ruling family, belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. The national census did not distinguish between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims. Most of the remaining 30 percent of citizens are Shi'a Muslims. There are approximately 150 to 200 Christian citizens and a small number of Baha'i citizens. Some 100,000 of noncitizen residents are Shi'a. While some areas have relatively high concentrations of Sunnis or Shi'a, most areas of the country are fairly well integrated religiously.

The Christian population, composed mostly of expatriates, is estimated to at be more than 400,000. The Christian community includes: the Anglican (Episcopalian) Church with approximately 100 members (several thousand other Christians also used the Anglican church for worship services); Armenian Orthodox Church with approximately 4,000 members; Coptic Orthodox Church with at least 65,000 members; Greek Catholic (Melkite) Church with approximately 1,000 to 2,000 members (Greek Catholics worship in a rented house, not at the Catholic cathedral in Kuwait City); Greek Orthodox Church (referred to in Arabic as the Roman Orthodox Church, a reference to the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium) with an estimated 3,500 members; National Evangelical (Protestant) Church with more than 70 congregations serving approximately 40,000; and the Roman Catholic Church, with 2 official churches and a third worship facility in a rented house, with an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 members (Latin, Maronite, Coptic Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Malabar, and Malankara congregations all worshipped at the Catholic cathedral in Kuwait City).

There are many other unrecognized Christian religious groups, although reliable estimates of their numbers are not available. These include: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Indian Orthodox Syrian Church, Mar Thoma, and Seventh-day Adventists.

There are also communities of Baha'is (400 adherents), Buddhists (100,000), Hindus (300,000), and Sikhs (10,000).

Protestant missionaries in the country serve non-Muslim congregations. The Government prohibits non-Muslims from proselytizing to Muslims, and there were no cases of foreign missionaries violating this prohibition.