Religion in Switzerland

Until the 1970s, Protestants made up a majority of the Swiss population, decreasing to about a fourth nowadays. Some traditionally Protestant cantons and cities have today more Catholics than Protestants, due to a steady rise of the unaffiliated population in general combined with Catholic immigration from countries such as Italy, Spain, and Portugal, who mostly immigrated during the second half of the 20th century, and a less important immigration from Croatia during the last 25 years. 31% of all Catholics are foreign nationals versus 5% of Protestants. The unaffiliated form 28.0% of Switzerland's population in 2018,[2] and are especially strong in the canton of Basel-City, the canton of Neuchâtel, the canton of Geneva, the canton of Vaud, and Zürich. The country was historically about evenly balanced between Catholics and Protestants, with a complex patchwork of majorities over most of the country. One canton, Appenzell, was officially divided into Catholic and Protestant sections in 1597. The larger cities and their cantons (Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Zürich and Basel) used to be predominantly Protestant. Central Switzerland, Valais, Ticino, Appenzell Innerrhodes, Jura, Fribourg, Solothurn, Basel-Country, St Gallen and the half of Aargau are traditionally Catholic. The Swiss Constitution of 1848, which came after the clashes between Catholic and Protestant cantons that culminated in the Sonderbundskrieg, consciously defines a consociational state, allowing the peaceful co-existence of Catholics and Protestants. A 1980 initiative calling for the complete separation of church and state was rejected by 78.9% of the voters.[5]

Rather recent immigration over the last 25 years has brought Islam (accounting for 5.3% in 2018[2]) and Eastern Orthodoxy as sizeable minority religions.[6]

Other Christian minority communities include Neo-Pietism, Pentecostalism (mostly incorporated in the Schweizer Pfingstmission), Methodism, the New Apostolic Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland.[6] Minor non-Christian minority groups are Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and other religions.[6]

A survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2017 found that 75% of Swiss adult population consider themselves Christians when asking about their current religion (irrespective of whether they are officially members of a particular Christian church by paying church tax). Nonetheless the same survey shows that only 27% of Christians in Switzerland attend church at least monthly, while the majority of Christians seldom go to church. 4% of people questioned state they have a non-Christian religion. 21% are of no religion, and nearly half of them consider themselves Atheists.[7]

Line chart

Geography of religions in Switzerland (2000)

  Roman Catholic Church

  Unaffiliated

  Swiss Reformed Church

  Other Christians

  Islam

  Other religions

  Judaism

Cantons

Religion of total population by canton in 2018 (colored background: absolute majority)[note 2][4][8]

Arms	Canton	Total population	Catholic population	Reformed population	Catholic %	Reformed %	Reformed + Catholic %	Other Christians/ religion or unaffiliated %
	Zürich	1,520,968	387,325	425,145	25.5	28.0	53.4	46.6
	Bern	1,034,977	164,866	541,148	15.9	52.3	68.2	31.8
	Vaud	799,145	250,543	205,775	31.4	25.7	57.1	42.9
	Aargau	678,207	215,984	161,317	31.8	23.8	55.6	44.4
	St. Gallen	507,697	226,264	104,851	44.6	20.7	65.2	34.8
	Geneva	499,480	219,477	62,769	43.9	12.6	56.5	43.5
	Luzern	409,557	245,397	41,673	59.9	10.2	70.1	29.9
	Ticino	353,343	235,570	5,356	66.7	1.5	68.2	31.8
	Valais	343,955	261,963	20,042	76.2	5.8	82.0	18.0
	Fribourg	318,714	197,559	41,534	62.0	13.0	75.0	25.0
	Basel-Landschaft	288,132	71,541	85,388	24.8	29.6	54.5	45.5
	Thurgau	276,472	85,104	93,628	30.8	33.9	64.6	35.4
	Solothurn	274,748	86,518	58,522	31.5	21.3	52.8	47.2
	Grisons	198,379	89,768	66,536	45.3	33.5	78.8	21.2
	Basel-Stadt	194,766	24,783	26,380	12.7	13.5	26.3	73.7
	Neuchâtel	176,850	64,258	51,378	36.3	29.1	65.4	34.6
	Schwyz	159,165	95,794	18,390	60.2	11.6	71.7	28.3
	Zug	126,837	61,999	17,070	48.9	13.5	62.3	37.7
	Schaffhausen	81,991	17,155	29,190	20.9	35.6	56.5	43.5
	Jura	73,419	55,000	7,023	74.9	9.6	84.5	15.5
	Appenzell Ausserrhoden/Innerrhoden[note 3]	71,379	27,942	23,513	39.1	32.9	72.1	27.9
	Nidwalden	43,223	28,363	4,336	65.6	10.0	75.6	24.3
	Glarus	40,403	13,383	13,768	33.1	34.1	67.2	32.8
	Obwalden	37,841	26,944	2,937	71.2	7.8	79.0	21.0
	Uri	36,433	28,582	1,691	78.5	4.6	83.1	16.9
	Switzerland	8,546,081	3,182,082	2,109,360	37.2	24.7	61.9	38.1

Nationalities

A Federal Statistical Office report published in 2019 shows significant statistical differences according to religious affiliation among the five most common nationalities in Switzerland: Swiss nationals are mostly Christians (73%), but divided between Catholics (37%), Swiss Reformed (31%) and other Christian churches (5%). The vast majority of Italian and Portuguese citizens living in Switzerland is Catholic (77% and 74%, respectively). Half of German nationals in Switzerland are unaffiliated, Christians form a minority accounting for 47% within this group. French citizens with Swiss residence are mostly unaffiliated (55%), while only 38% of them are Christians.[9]

Most common nationalities in Switzerland by religion, 2017 (percentage, majority in green)[9]

Religion	Switzerland	Italy	Germany	Balkan States*	Portugal	France	Spain	Turkey
Christianity	72.9	80.9	47.0	26.0	76.7	38.5	65.8	2.1
– Roman Catholic Church	36.7	76.9	22.6	5.0	73.9	33.5	62.8	0.3
– Swiss Reformed Church	31.2	0.6	20.3	0.1	0.4	2.3	0.6	0.2
– Other Christian Churches	5.0	3.4	4.1	20.9	2.4	2.7	2.4	1.6
Judaism	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.9	0.1	0.1
Islam	2.4	1.2	1.4	61.1	0.3	2.7	0.6	72.9
Other religions	0.9	0.4	0.2	0.5	0.4	1.1	0.4	1.2
Unaffiliated	22.4	16.1	50.0	10.8	20.3	54.6	31.1	22.3
No answer	1.2	1.4	0.7	1.5	2.4	2.4	1.8	1.4
*Includes: Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo.

Minaret at the mosque of the local Turkish cultural association in Wangen bei Olten. Inaugurated in July 2009, after four years of legal and political controversy, this minaret, a plastic construction made in Turkey and placed on the roof of the Turkish cultural center, created the initial motivation for the popular initiative, voted upon later in 2009, which led to a nationwide ban of further erection of minarets.

The Swiss constitution of 1848, written by the victorious pro-union Protestant cantons after the Sonderbundskrieg (Catholic-Separatist Civil War of 1847), defines a consociational state, allowing the peaceful co-existence of Catholics and Protestants.

However, the Catholic Jesuits (Societas Jesu) were banned from all activities in either clerical or pedagogical functions by Article 51 of the Swiss constitution in 1848. The reason was the perceived threat resulting from Jesuit advocacy of traditionalist Catholicism to the stability of the state. In May 1973, 54.9% of Swiss voters approved removing the ban on the Jesuits (as well as Article 52 which banned monasteries and convents from Switzerland).[10]

The settlement restrictions placed on Swiss Jews in various instances between the 14th and 18th centuries were lifted with the revised Swiss Constitution of 1874.

A popular vote in March 1980 on the complete separation of church and state was clearly opposed to such a change, with only 21.1% voting in support, to the effect of the retention of the Landeskirchen system.[11]

In November 2009, 57.5% of Swiss voters approved of a popular initiative to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland. The four existing Swiss minarets, at mosques in Zürich, Geneva, Winterthur and Wangen bei Olten are not affected by the ban.[12]

Feast of Corpus Christi at Erschmatt in the canton of Valais

Full freedom of religion has been guaranteed since the revised Swiss Constitution of 1874 (Article 49). During the Old Swiss Confederacy, there had been no de facto freedom of religion, with persecution of Anabaptists in particular well into the 18th century. Swiss Jews had been given full political rights in 1866, although their right to settle freely was implemented as late as 1879 in the canton of Aargau.

The current Swiss Constitution of 1999 makes explicit both positive and negative religious freedom in Article 15, paragraph 3--which asserts that every person has the right to adhere to a religious confession and to attend religious education—and paragraph 4, which asserts that nobody can be forced to either adhere to a religious confession or to attend religious education.

The basic right protected by the constitution is that of public confession of adherence to a religious community and the performance of religious cult activities. Article 36 of the constitution introduces a limitation of these rights if they conflict with public interest or if they encroach upon the basic rights of others. Thus, ritual slaughter is prohibited as conflicting with Swiss animal laws. Performance of cultic or missionary activities or religious processions on public ground may be limited. The use of cantonal taxes to support cantonal churches has been ruled legal by the Federal Supreme Court.[13] Some commentators have argued that the minaret ban introduced by popular vote in 2009 constitutes a breach of religious freedom.[14]

Surveys and studies have identified social bias against Muslims and Jews in Switzerland. While most instances of religiously motivated harassment have been verbal, since 2016 there have been a few reports of physical assault against Jews, and Muslim cemeteries have been targeted for vandalism.[15]

Traces of the pre-Christian religions of the area that is now Switzerland include the Bronze Age "fire dogs". The Gaulish Helvetii, who became part of Gallo-Roman culture under the Roman Empire, left only scarce traces of their religion like the statue of dea Artio, a bear goddess, found near Bern. A known Roman sanctuary to Mercury was on a hill north-east of Baar.[16] St. Peter in Zürich was the location of a temple to Jupiter.

Basilique de Valère (12th century) in Sion

The Bishopric of Basel was established in AD 346; the bishopric of Sion, before 381; the bishopric of Geneva. in c. 400: the bishopric of Vindonissa (now united as the Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg), in 517; and the Diocese of Chur, before 451.

Germanic paganism briefly reached Switzerland with the immigration, from the 6th century, of the Alemanni, who were gradually converted to Christianity during the 6th and 7th centuries, with the establishment of the Bishopric of Constance in c. 585. The Abbey of St. Gall rose as an important center of learning in the early Middle Ages.

The Old Swiss Confederacy was Roman Catholic as a matter of course until the Reformation of the 1520s, which resulted in a lasting split of the Confederacy into Protestantism and Catholicism. This split lead to numerous violent outbreaks in Early Modern times and included the partitioning of the former canton of Appenzell into the Protestant canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Catholic Appenzell Innerrhoden in 1597. The secular Helvetic Republic was a brief intermezzo and tensions immediately resurfaced after 1815, leading to the formation of the modern confederal state in 1848, which recognizes Landeskirchen on a cantonal basis: the Roman Catholic and the Reformed Churches in each canton, and since the 1870s (following the controversies triggered by the First Vatican Council) the Christian Catholic Church in some cantons.

Geneva holds a special place in Protestant history as fundamental parts of John Calvin's religious thought originated there, and was further progressed by Theodore Beza, William Farel and other Reformed theologians. It also served as a haven for persecuted Protestants from France, including Calvin, who became the spiritual leader of the city, himself. Zürich is also important for Protestants, as Huldrych Zwingli, Heinrich Bullinger and other Reformed theologians operated there.

The Jesuits (Societas Jesu) were the subject of a bitter controversy in 19th-century Switzerland. The order had been dissolved in 1773 by Clement XIV, however was re-instated in 1814 by Pius VII.

Over the following years, the Jesuits returned to the Swiss colleges they had owned prior to 1773, in Brig (1814), Sion (1814), Fribourg (1818) and Lucerne (1845), and especially Fribourg became a center of the Council of Trent. The Protestant cantons felt threatened by the re-appearance of the Jesuits and their program of traditionalist Catholicism, which contributed to religious unrest and the formation of the Sonderbund of the Catholic cantons, and at the Tagsatzung of 1844 in vain demanded the expulsion of the Jesuit order from the territory of the Swiss confederacy. The Protestant victory of the Sonderbundskrieg of 1847 led to the realization of such a ban in the 1848 Swiss Constitution, expanded even further in the revised constitution of 1874, so that all activity of Jesuits either in clerical or in educational function was outlawed in Switzerland until 1973, when the paragraph was removed from the constitution by a popular vote.[17]

• History of the Jews in Switzerland
• Islam in Switzerland
• Swiss Brethren
• Buddhism in Switzerland
• Hinduism in Switzerland
• Sikhism in Switzerland
• Minaret controversy in Switzerland
• Demographics of Switzerland
• Religions by country
• Religion in Europe

• Marcel Stüssi (2012). Models of Religious Freedom: Switzerland, the United States, and Syria by Analytical, Methodological, and Eclectic Representation. ReligionsRecht im Dialog. 12. Zurich: LIT. pp. 375 ff. ISBN 978-3-643-80118-0.
• Christoph Uehlinger: Religion in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 2011-12-23.
• Jakob Frey: Church tax in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 2007-08-13.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Religion in Switzerland.

• 2000 census results
• Eurel: sociological and legal data on religions in Europe