Religion in Greece is dominated by
Christianity, in particular the
Greek Orthodox Church, which is within the larger communion of the
Eastern Orthodox Church. It represented 90% of the total population in 2015[1] and is constitutionally recognized as the "prevailing religion" of
Greece. Religions with smaller numbers of followers include
Islam (comprising 2%[1] of the population),
Roman Catholicism (comprising 1%[1] of the population),
Greek Catholicism,
Judaism,
Evangelicalism,
Hellenic paganism, and
Jehovah's Witnesses. Also a small number of Greek
atheists exist, not self-identifying as religious. Religion is key part of identity for most Greeks, with 76% of Greeks in a 2015–2017 survey saying that their nationality is defined by Christianity.[2] According to other sources, 81.4% of Greeks identify as Orthodox Christians and 14.7% are atheists.[3]
Demographics
In a survey of the
Pew Research Center conducted in 2015 and 2016, 90% of respondents identified as
Greek Orthodox, less than 1% was Catholic and 3% was part of other Christian denominations. Muslims comprised 2% and other religions less than 1%. Four percent was religiously unaffiliated.[1]
According to research polls in 2022, 81-90% of the population identified as Greek Orthodox, 4-15% as atheist, and 2% as Muslim.[4]
The
Church of Greece, a member of the
Eastern Orthodox Communion, is accorded the status of "prevailing religion" in
Greece's constitution. Since 1850, Greek Orthodoxy within Greece is handled by the Church.[5] Its members comprise between 88%[6] and 95–98%[7][8] of the population, the most recent
Pew report gave a percentage of 90% as 2015 numbers.[1]
The status of the Orthodox church as the "prevailing religion" is largely based on the role the church played for the preservation of the Greek nation through the years of the
Ottoman Empire but also for the role the church played in the
Greek War of Independence. As a result, many[who?] attribute to the modern Greek nation an
ethnoreligious identity.[9]
Furthermore, the mainstream Orthodox clergy's salaries and pensions are paid for by the State at rates comparable to those of teachers. All Greek students in primary and secondary schools in Greece attend Christian Orthodox instruction, although there is an exemption system for students who do not want to attend, as long as the exemption is requested by both parents.
Catholics made up less than 1% of the total population in 2015.[1] The Catholic community has increased in size in recent years due to immigration and today number over 200,000.[7]
Roman Catholics
Roman Catholic
Greeks number approximately 50,000[when?][7] and are found all over
Greece; the majority, however, live in the
Cyclades and the
Ionian Islands. The presence of Catholics in the Greek islands is mostly a heritage from the time of the
Venetian domination in the
Middle Ages. The Catholic community has increased in size in recent years due to immigration and today[when?] number over 200,000.[7]
The
Protestant population, including
Greek Evangelical Church and
Free Evangelical Churches, stood at about 23,000 people in 2020 (0.23% of the country).[11] The Free Apostolic Church of the Pentecost was founded by Leonidas Feggos in 1965. The official church, Eastern Orthodox, and the State reluctantly gave permission for Pentecostal churches to operate legally. The process of receiving permission from the Ministry of Education and Religion to operate as a church is becoming easier.
Assemblies of God, the
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and other
Pentecostal churches of the Greek Synod of Apostolic Church have 12,000 members.[12] The Independent
Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost is the biggest Protestant denomination in Greece with 120 churches.[13] There are no official statistics about Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost, but the Orthodox Church estimates the followers at 20,000.[14]
The presence of
Armenians in Greece dates back centuries (from the
Byzantine period), when Armenians settled in Thessalia, Macedonia, Thrace and the islands of Crete and Corfu for various reasons such as war or business.
The Armenians in Greece acquired the character of a community after the 1920s, when 70,000 to 80,000 survivors of the
Armenian genocide fled to Greece. Today, emigration to North America has diminished the Armenian population of Greece. The number now counts for roughly 20,000–35,000 Greco-Armenians.[15]
The number of citizens of Greece who are Muslims is estimated to be at 97,604 people or 0.95% of the total population, according to the 1991 census.[16] They live mostly in Western Thrace and are primarily of Slavonic (
Pomak) and
Romani descent. In 2006, immigrant Muslims were estimated between 200,000 and 300,000.[17] and approximately half of them live in
Athens. In 2015,
Islam was the religion of 2% of the total population of Greece.[1]
The number of the followers is not so high amongst the Greeks but it has increased during the last decades because of the immigration of people from
East Asia,
Sri Lanka and
Southeast Asia in Greece. Sri Lankan and Southeast Asian migrant workers working in Greece were usually sent back to their home country to be cremated, due to cremation being banned in Greece until 2006. Today there are three religious centers, in Athens, Thessaloniki and Corinth.
Hinduism in Greece has a small following. There is a small
Hindu community in Athens. There are 25 PIOs and 12 NRIs in the city. On March 1, 2006, the Greek government passed a law allowing cremation. The law was welcomed by the Indian community in Athens.
Sikhs have been in Greece since the
World Wars, as part of the
British Indian Army.
Guru Nanak is also known to have passed through Greece during one of his journeys. However, actual immigration to Greece began in the 1970s. It reached its peak during the 1990s–2000s. As of 2017, Sikhs are estimated to number 20,000–25,000.[citation needed] There are eight
Gurudwaras in Greece, most of them located in
Central Greece and only one being in
Crete. Gurudwaras are often officially documented as personal properties, community centres or libraries, due to the paperwork needed and also due to the lack of recognition of Sikhs by the
Greek Government. Sikhs often face racism and discrimination by the Greek public, who confuse them with Muslims, as well as legal challenges, mostly due to the distinct appearance (
The Five Ks). Sikhs are not allowed to wear their turbans and ride motorcycles without helmets, as in the
United Kingdom, where their contributions in the war efforts were recognized and they were allowed to not wear helmets.[citation needed] Young Sikhs often face difficulties when recruited for the mandatory
conscription in Greece, due to their long hair, beard and turbans. Sikhism is still not an officially recognized religion in Greece and Sikhs are often not included in censuses. Media coverage of Sikhs is minimal and their religion is often reported as "a mix of Hinduism and Islam", whereas it has a separate belief system and many differences. Sikh
Gurudwaras have faced numerous attacks including gunshots and
Molotov cocktails.[citation needed] On 1 March 2006, the Greek government passed a law allowing cremation,[19] a move welcomed by both Sikhs and
Hindus. Since the
financial crisis of 2007–2008, many Sikhs have migrated to other countries, such as the
United Kingdom,
Canada, and
Germany.
In 2023, the country was scored 3 out of 4 for religious freedom;[26] it was noted that the salaries and pensions of Orthodox clergy are paid for by the state.
^Kenneth Scott Latourette, Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, II: The Nineteenth Century in Europe: The Protestant and Eastern Churches. (1959) 2: 479–481
^Yang and Ebaugh, p.369: "Andrew Greeley (1971) identified three types of relationships in the United States: some religious people who do not hold an ethnic identity; some people who have an ethnic identity but are not religious; and cases in which religion and ethnicity are intertwined. Phillip Hammond and Kee Warner (1993), following Harold J. Abramson (1973), further explicated the 'intertwining relationships" into a typology. First is 'ethnic fusion', where religion is the foundation of ethnicity, or, ethnicity equals religion, such as in the case of the Amish and Jews. The second pattern is that of 'ethnic religion', where religion is one of several foundations of ethnicity. The Greek or Russian Orthodox and the Dutch Reformed are examples of this type. In this pattern, ethnic identification can be claimed without claiming the religious identification but the reverse is rare. The third form, 'religious ethnicity', occurs where an ethnic group is linked to a religious tradition that is shared by other ethnic groups. The Irish, Italian, and Polish Catholics are such cases. In this pattern, religious identification can be claimed without claiming ethnic identification. Hammond and Warner also suggest that the relationship of religion and ethnicity is strongest in 'ethnic fusion' and least strong in 'religious ethnicity'. Recently, some scholars have argued that even Jews' religion and culture (ethnicity) can be distinguished from each other and are separable (Chervyakov, Gitelman, and Shapiro 1997; Gans 1994)."