Religions in Hungary

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Saint Adalbert Cathedral in Esztergom, seat of the Catholic Archdiocese

The religions in Hungary primarily include the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformed Church , as well as other Christian churches and communities, but also Jews , Muslims and other groups. About 200 religious communities are officially registered.

history

Great Synagogue in Budapest
Türbe (mausoleum) for Gül Baba , 1543–1548
Codex Pray , 1192-1195

In the area of ​​today's Hungary, indigenous religions dominated until the 10th century. With the Roman conquest came some Jewish merchants, from the 3rd century there are known inscriptions in camp villages. Traces of Christianization have been found since around 400. The immigrant Slavs were proselytized in the late 9th century. The 9/10 Magyars who came in the 19th century initially adhered to their traditional religion; from around 950 there were the first Orthodox missionaries ( Hierotheos ). King Stephan I created the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gran (Esztergom) in 1000/1001 and thus laid the basis for the orientation that continues to this day. The first Muslim merchants can be identified in the 11th century, and in 1232 all Muslims were ordered to be expelled.

With the Ottoman conquest of large parts of Hungary from 1526, the influence of Islam as an official religion grew, while many Christian churches were destroyed or converted into mosques. During this time, living conditions improved for Jewish communities. In northern Hungary in the 16th century there were first Lutheran, then more strongly Reformed (Calvinist) influences, also by German settlers, but these were pushed back in the 17th century by the Counter Reformation. After the end of Ottoman rule in 1683, all of Hungary came under the Habsburg Empire and Catholicism became the dominant religion again. The tolerance patent of Emperor Joseph I of 1781/82 also opened up other faiths to practice their religion more freely.

During the German occupation in 1944/45 a large part of the approximately 800,000 Jewish Hungarians were killed. After 1945 the practice of religion was restricted. With the Religion Act of 1989, freedom of religion was guaranteed again.

present

The largest religious community is the Roman Catholic Church, to which about 56–60% of the population belong. There is also the Greek Catholic Church , mainly of Ruthenian and Ukrainian believers. The Reformed Church, the second largest church with around 13-16%, the Evangelical Lutheran Church , and other communities such as Baptists , Methodists , Unitarians and others are evangelical . There are small Orthodox communities of Serbs, Romanians , Bulgarians , as well as the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Patriarchate of Moscow .

The Jewish community with 70,000-80,000 members of one of the largest in Europe. As a result of the migration in recent years, numerous Muslims came to Hungary. About 20% of the population do not belong to any religious community, are atheists or did not provide any information in the surveys.

statistics

Religions in Hungary 1920 1930 1941 1949 1992 1998 2001 2011
number % number % number % number % number % number % number % number %
Christian churches and communities 7,496,825 93.6 8,228,358 94.7 8,909,799 95.7 9,049,973 98.3 9,632,801 92.9 8,151,998 79.4 7,583,772 74.3 5,385,106 54.2
Roman Catholic Church 5,102,466 63.8 5,631,146 64.8 6,119,218 65.7 6,240,399 67.8 7,030,182 67.8 5,934,326 57.8 5,289,521 51.9 3,691,348 37.1
Greek Catholic Churches 175.653 2.1 201.092 2.3 233,836 2.5 248,356 2.7 - - - - 268,935 2.6 179.176 1.8
reformed Church 1,670,990 20.9 1,813,144 20.9 1,934,853 20.8 2,014,718 21.9 2,167,121 20.9 1,817,259 17.7 1,622,796 15.9 1,153,442 11.6
Evangelical Lutheran Church 496.799 6.2 533,846 6.1 557.193 6.0 482.157 5.2 435,498 4.2 400.413 3.9 304.705 3.0 214.965 2.2
Orthodox churches 50.917 0.6 39.839 0.5 38.317 0.4 36.015 0.4 - - - - 14,520 0.1 13.710 0.1
Other Christian communities - - 9.291 0.1 26,382 0.3 28,328 0.3 - - - - 82.790 0.8 131.108 1.3
Jewish communities 473,329 5.9 444,552 5.1 400.760 4.3 133.861 1.5 - - 20,534 0.2 12,871 0.1 10.965 0.1
Buddhism - - - - - - - - - - - - 5.223 0.1 9.758 0.1
Islam - - - - - - - - - - - - 3,201 0.0 5,579 0.0
Other religious communities - - - - - - - - - - - - 2.513 0.0 3,627 0.0
Without religion - - - - - - - - - - - - 1,483,369 14.5 1,659,023 16.7
Atheists - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 147.386 1.5
No information 16.721 0.2 2.553 0.0 5.515 0.0 20.965 0.2 725.830 7.0 2,094,468 20.4 1,104,333 10.8 2,699,025 27.2
Total population 7,986,875 100.0 8,685,109 100.0 9,316,074 100.0 9,204,799 100.0 10,369,000 100.0 10,267,000 100.0 10,198,315 100.0 9,937,628 100.0

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ András Máté-Tóth: The multi-religious Hungary . In: East-West. European Perspectives (OWEP), Volume 2007, Issue 2, pp. 134–140 ( online , accessed March 17, 2020).
  2. ^ History of the Hungarians
  3. ↑ A further survey by Eurobarometer in 2015 found 60.3% Catholics in total, 5.1% Protestants, 1.1% Orthodox and 8.1% other Christians. Without religion, 18.5% and 2.7% were atheists. According to Discrimination in the EU in 2015 Eurobarometer, European Commission
  4. ^ Orthodox parishes in Hungary
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Vallás, felekezet . Hungarian Central Statistical Office. Also 1920–2011: Visszatekintő adatok ("Retrospective data"): 1.1 - A népesség száma és megoszlása ​​vallás és nemek szerint ; 1.2 - A népesség száma és megoszlása ​​vallás és főbb korcsoport szerint .
  6. ↑ From 1920 to 1998, this category also included people with no religion and atheists