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Religious minorities in Germany

Since the Reformation, Germany has mainly been a bi-confessional country, the two big Lutheran and Catholic Churches still benefiting today (although in a reduced form) from a legally, politically and socially privileged status. (See the Historical survey section).
Today, more than 60% of the population belong to a Christian Church: according to statistics from the Statistiches Bundesamt (2004), 31,1% of the German population declare themselves as Protestants i.e. 5 630 000 persons and 31,5% as Catholics i.e. 25 986 000). According to REMID’s estimations, there are also 1 424 500 people belonging to an Orthodox or Western Church, which represents 1,7% of the general population.
The Jews are the only minority in Germany for which there are official statistics i.e. 106 000 persons: 0,1% of the population for any other religious belonging is classified by the Bundesamt under the category "other". However estimations reveal that Muslims constitute the biggest non - Christian religious minority with more than 3 millions of members, followed by the Buddhists (about 245 000 persons) and the Hindus (between 89 500 and 97 500 persons). About 141 000 persons belong to other religious communities or movements.

D 19 July 2012    AMatthias Koenig AMiriam Schader

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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