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population 2015 7 population 2018 8 population 2019 9 population 2021 10 christianity 59 63 60 49 catholic christianity 51 57 54 44 protestant christianity and other christians 6 5 5 4 orthodox christianity 2 1 1 1 islam 5 8 5 2 buddhism 1 other religions and unspecified including refusal to answer and do not know 5 4 7 atheism 14 9 10 15 not religious 17 20 21 26 european social survey edit the european social survey holds regular surveys to measure religious belonging in various countries they use a two question approach the first question asked is do you consider yourself as belonging to any particular religion or denomination if this question is answered in the affirmative the second question is which one the table is calculated by combining the answers to both questions religious group 2002 11 12 2004 13 14 2006 15 16 2008 17 18 2010 19 20 2012 21 22 2014 23 24 2016 25 26 2018 27 28 2020 29 30 2023 1 2 no religion 50 2 54 56 2 55 8 57 8 58 6 58 8 54 2 53 8 57 6 58 7 christian 45 9 41 3 40 4 38 9 36 8 33 9 34 8 37 2 37 35 1 33 9 roman catholic 43 9 40 38 8 36 9 34 3 31 8 31 6 35 1 33 6 31 2 31 1 protestant 0 6 0 5 0 6 1 1 1 1 1 0 9 0 8 1 4 1 4 1 3 eastern orthodox 0 1 0 2 0 4 0 4 0 4 0 7 1 3 0 8 1 2 1 7 0 6 other christian 1 3 0 6 0 6 0 6 1 0 3 1 0 5 0 8 0 8 0 9 islam 2 8 3 9 3 2 4 1 4 7 6 5 5 8 7 4 7 7 7 6 4 jewish 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 1 eastern religions 0 2 0 5 0 1 0 4 0 3 0 4 0 4 0 5 0 7 0 2 0 2 other 0 6 0 3 0 0 6 0 1 0 5 0 2 0 6 0 6 0 2 0 6 attendance at religious services edit in 2023 most belgians 59 never attended religious services apart from special occasions such as weddings and funerals only 7 responded that they had taken part at least once a week 5 government and religion edit see also freedom of religion in belgium the belgian constitution provides for freedom of religion and the government generally respects this right in practice however government officials have the authority to research and monitor religious groups that are not officially recognised there are a few reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice and some reports of discrimination against minority religious groups belgian law officially recognizes many religions including catholicism protestantism anglicanism islam judaism and eastern orthodoxy as well as non religious philosophical organizations dutch vrijzinnige levensbeschouwelijke organisaties french organizations laïques 31 buddhism is in the process of being recognized under the secular organization standard 32 official recognition means that priests called counselors within the secular organizations receive a state stipend also parents can choose any recognized denomination to provide religious education to their children if they attend a state school adherents to religions that are not officially recognized are not denied the right to practice their religion but do not receive state stipends after attaining autonomy from the federal government in religious matters the flemish parliament passed a regional decree installing democratically elected church councils for all recognised religious denominations and making them subject to the same administrative rules as local government bodies with important repercussions for financial accounting and open government in 2006 however catholic bishops still appointed candidates to the catholic church councils because they had not decided on the criteria for eligibility they were afraid that candidates might be merely baptized catholics by 2008 however the bishops decided that candidates for the church councils had only to prove that they were over 18 a member of the parish church serving the town or village in which they lived and baptized catholic 33 in 2022 the country was scored 3 out of 4 for religious freedom 34 religions edit christianity edit catholicism edit main article catholic church in belgium church of our lady of victories at the sablon in brussels catholicism has traditionally been belgium s majority religion with particular strength in flanders however by 2009 sunday church attendance was 5 4 in flanders down from 12 7 in 1998 35 nationwide sunday church attendance was 5 in 2009 down from 11 2 in 1998 36 until 1998 the catholic church annually published key figures such as sunday mass attendance and the number of baptized children in 2006 it announced that mass attendance for the christmas period was 11 5 and weekly mass attendance not only on sundays was 7 37 for the flanders region since 2000 sunday church attendance in flanders has dropped by an average of 0 5 1 each year 38 in the years 2010 to 2016 12 442 people in flanders formally left the catholic church 39 the catholic church in belgium 2023 report said that 50 of belgium s population identified as catholic in 2022 down from 53 in 2017 with 8 9 attending mass at least once a month 40 protestantism edit church of redemption a 1930s protestant church in quai godefroid kurth liège in 1566 at the peak of belgian reformation there were an estimated 300 000 protestants or 20 of the belgian population 41 the spanish reconquest of the southern netherlands in the eighty years war prompted most of the belgian protestants to flee to the north or convert causing the region to again be overwhelmingly catholic as of 2017 protestantism represented 4 of the total population according to pew research 42 the administrative council of protestant and evangelical religion in belgium is a coordinating group that mediates between many protestant groups and the government the largest protestant denomination is the united protestant church in belgium with some 138 affiliated churches 43 belgium had thirteen anglican churches as of 2012 43 including the pro cathedral holy trinity brussels they are part of the church of england s diocese in europe and of the convocation of episcopal churches in europe 44 orthodox christianity edit russian orthodox church in lampernisse diksmuide eastern orthodox christians made up 1 6 of the total belgian population in 2015 45 the region with the greatest proportion of eastern orthodox christians was the bruxelles capital region in which they formed 8 3 of the population 46 the eastern orthodox church in belgium is subdivided into several canonical jurisdictions russian ecumenical serbian romanian and bulgarian there are significant armenian communities that reside in belgium many of them are descendants of traders who settled during the 19th century most armenian belgians are adherents of the armenian apostolic church with smaller numbers belonging to the armenian catholic church or the armenian evangelical church these churches have not yet received official recognition other christians edit the church of jesus christ of latter day saints has had a presence in belgium as early as 1888 47 on 4 april 2021 church president russell m nelson announce church s intent to construct the brussels belgium temple the church s first temple in belgium 48 the groundbreaking for the temple occurred in 2025 there are an estimated 7000 members of the church in belgium as of 2025 49 islam edit main article islam in belgium mosque in maasmechelen in 2015 according to the eurobarometer survey made by the european commission 5 2 of the total belgian population was muslim 45 as of 2015 it was estimated that 7 of the belgians 781 887 were muslims including 329 749 in flanders forming 5 1 of the region s population 174 136 in wallonia 4 9 and 277 867 in brussels 23 6 50 judaism edit great synagogue of europe in brussels this section needs expansion you can help by adding missing information december 2023 main article history of the jews in belgium there is a small but long standing jewish community concentrated in antwerp buddhism edit eurobarometer 2015 found only 0 2 of the total belgian population declaring to be buddhist 45 despite that one year later ipsos found that 2 of the working age internet connected belgians were buddhists 51 confucianism edit according to ipsos 1 of the working age internet connected belgians declared that they believed in confucianism 51 this segment of the population may include many if not all the chinese communities in belgium hinduism edit main article hinduism in belgium hinduism forms a negligible but growing minority in belgium in 2006 there were about 6 500 hindus in the country 52 this increased to 7 901 hindus in 2015 53 and 10 000 in 2020 54 the majority of hindus in belgium originate from nepal some come from diamond trading communities in india and some are native converts mostly of the iskon movement 55 52 in 2023 hindus in belgium advocated for official state recognition as a religion in belgium 56 doing so would allow hindu chaplains and priests to visit prisons and hospitals 56 antoinism edit antoinism is a christian inspired new religious movement which was created by louis joseph antoine 1846 1912 it remains the only significant such movement to originate in belgium and has adherents in france and elsewhere jainism edit main article jainism in belgium jainism is an indian religion which has around 2 000 adherents in belgium as of 2020 consisting mainly of indian migrants who specialize in the diamond trade within antwerp the shankheswar parshvanath jain temple which is located in the antwerpian municipality of wilrijk remains the only jain temple within continental europe 57 history edit southern part of the low countries with bishopry towns and abbeys in about the 7th century beguinage of kortrijk where the last one of the beguines a medieval christian lay semi monastic order died in 2013 6th 7th century christianisation edit after the roman period christianity was brought back to the southern low countries by missionary saints like willibrord and amandus in the 7th century abbeys were founded in remote places and it was mainly from these abbeys that the christianization process was started this process was expanded under the auspices of the merovingian dynasty and later by charlemagne who even waged war to impose the new religion 17th 18th century catholicism as the state religion edit from the spanish military conquest of 1592 until the re establishment of religious freedom in 1781 by the patent of toleration under joseph ii of austria catholicism was the only religion allowed on penalty of death in the territories now forming belgium however a small number of protestant groups managed to survive at maria horebeke dour tournai eupen and hodimont 58 19th 20th century edit religion was one of the differences between the almost solidly catholic south and the predominantly protestant north of the united kingdom of the netherlands formed in 1815 the union broke up in 1830 when the south seceded to form the kingdom of belgium in belgium s first century catholicism was such a binding factor socially that it prevailed over the language divide dutch versus french the decline in religion s importance as a social marker across late 20th century western europe explains to a large extent the current centrifugal forces in belgium with language differences increasingly reinforced by a positive feedback effect in the media no longer being kept in check by a religious binding factor if anything the catholic church has acquiesced to these changes by having a dutch speaking university katholieke universiteit leuven and a french speaking university universite catholique de louvain until the late 20th century catholicism played an important role in belgian politics one significant example was the so called schools wars dutch schoolstrijd french guerres scolaires between the country s philosophically left wing parties liberals at first joined by socialists later and the catholic party later the christian democrats which took place from 1879 to 1884 and from 1954 to 1958 another important controversy happened in 1990 when the catholic monarch king baudouin i refused to ratify an abortion bill that had been approved by parliament the king asked prime minister wilfried martens and his government to find a solution which proved novel the government declared king baudouin unfit to fulfill his constitutional duties as monarch for one day government ministers signed the bill in his place 59 and then proceeded to reinstate the king after the abortion law had come into effect 21st century edit this section relies on a single source please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed june 2022 learn how and when to remove this message jain temple of antwerp in 2002 the officially recognized protestant denomination at the time the united protestant church of belgium 60 consisting of around 100 member churches usually with a calvinist or methodist past and the unsubsidized federal synod of protestant and evangelical churches which had 600 member churches in 2008 but did not include all evangelical and charismatic groups outside the catholic tradition together formed the administrative council of the protestant and evangelical religion arpee in dutch cacpe in french the council is now the accepted mouthpiece of protestantism in all three linguistic communities of belgium dutch french and german the 21st century has witnessed significant changes in the religious demography of belgium characterized by a decline of catholicism and the growth of irreligion and other religions some of them brought by waves of immigration from foreign countries including pentecostalism orthodox christianity islam hinduism buddhism and chinese religions citation needed apart from islam however these groups are very small demographically especially alongside the unaffiliated demographic of 37 42 recent changes in religious practice edit in 2024 the belgian catholic bishops conference reported a slight increase in sunday mass attendance with an average of 173 335 people attending on a regular sunday in october up from 167 360 in 2023 the number of adult baptisms catechumens has also risen from around 180 in 2015 to 362 in 2024 with 536 expected in 2025 however regular attendance remains low in comparison with earlier decades and identity based affiliation identifying as catholic 61 continues to exceed levels of active participation law and religious symbols edit in may 2024 the european court of human rights upheld the admissibility of belgium s ban on visible religious symbols including headscarves in the flemish community s public school network finding that a policy of state neutrality may justify general prohibitions when applied without discrimination similarly under belgian law public sector employers may enforce 62 neutrality policies regarding visible religious symbols provided such rules are general nondiscriminatory and necessary to the functioning of the institution discrimination and social experience edit data from the european union fundamental rights agency indicate a rising incidence of discrimination against muslims in belgium 63 particular...