Religion in Slovenia

The Catholic Church in Slovenia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.

There are around 1,135,626 Catholics in the country (about 57.8% of the total population as per the 2002 Census).[2] The country is divided into six dioceses, including two archdioceses. The diocese of Maribor was elevated to an archdiocese by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. Additionally, the pope created three new sees, namely Novo Mesto, Celje and Murska Sobota.

Protestantism is tightly-knit with the history of Slovenians, with the Slovenian language having been established in the Reformation. Primož Trubar was a leading early Slovenian author and a Protestant reformer. He contributed to the development of the Slovenian language and Slovenian culture.

The Reformation flourished in the 16th century, accounting for the vast majority of cultural development in Slovenian. Lutheranism was the most popular Protestant denomination among Slovenians, with minorities, most notably Calvinism.

Protestantism among Slovenians was aggressively attempted to be wiped out by the Habsburgs with the Counter-Reformation. The Counter-Reformation was heavily deployed to the majority of Slovenian-speaking territory. Means used involved murder, extradition, book-burning and a general ban of the Slovenian language. Excluded were eastern regions (such as Prekmurje), ruled by Hungarian nobility, often Calvinist. Historically, Hungarians had taken up Lutheranism first, before gradually switching to Calvinism. They did not have a policy of extinguishing Lutheranism.

Protestantism among Slovenians survived the Counter-Reformation scattered. Protestantism is a minority group of Christian denominations in the Republic of Slovenia today. The largest community of Protestant Slovenians lives in the Prekmurje region, most of them are Lutheran.[4]

Eastern Orthodoxy maintains a significant presence in the country and is practised in majority by Slovenians of Serbian heritage. Eastern Orthodox Christians in Slovenia are under ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana.

The Muslims in Slovenia are ethnically mostly Bosniaks and ethnic Muslims.[5] In 2014, there were 48,266 Muslims in Slovenia, making up about 2.4 percent of the total population.[6] The Muslim community of Slovenia is headed by Nedžad Grabus.[7]

According to the published data from the 2002 Slovenian census, out of a total of 47,488 Muslims (2.4% of the total population) 2,804 Muslims (5.90% of the total Muslims in Slovenia) declared themselves as ethnic Slovenian Muslims.[8]

There are also Muslims from Central, South and Southeast Asia, who are not counted in the census because they are migrant workers.

The small Jewish community of Slovenia (Slovene: Judovska skupnost Slovenije) is estimated at 400 to 600 members, with the Jewish community of Slovenia suggesting 500 to 1000 members. Around 130 are officially registered,[9] most of whom live in the capital, Ljubljana. The Jewish community was devastated by the Shoah, and has never fully recovered. Until 2003, Ljubljana was the only European capital city without a Jewish place of worship.[10]

220 Hindus live in Slovenia, with 70 belonging to the Hindu Religious Community in Slovenia and 150 belonging to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon).[11]

Religiosity of Slovene citizens according to population censuses 1991, and 2002.

• Eurobarometer 2012 found about 68% of the population declaring to be Christian, with 64% being members of the Catholic Church. Members of other Christian denominations made up 4% of the population.[14]
• International Social Survey Programme 2015 found that 64.3% of the population declared to be Christian, with Catholicism being the largest denomination accounting for 62.2% of the respondents, and Eastern Orthodoxy being the second-largest sect comprising 1.5%; members of other Christian denominations made up the 0.6%. A further 34.3% declared to have no religion, and 1.5% declared to belong to other religions.[15]