Religion in Bulgaria has been dominated by Christianity since its adoption as the state religion in 864. The dominant form of the religion is Eastern Orthodox Christianity within the fold of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. During the Ottoman rule of the Balkans, Islam spread to the territories of Bulgaria, and it remains a significant minority today. The Catholic Church has roots in the country since the Middle Ages, and Protestantism arrived in the 19th century; both of them remain very small minorities. Today, a significant part of the Bulgarians are not religious, or believers who do not identify with any specific religion, and Bulgaria has been the cradle of some new religions, notably the Neo-Theosophical movement of Dunovism.
Since the early 21st century, there has been a decline of both historic religions of Bulgaria—Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Islam. Orthodox Christianity has shrunk from 7.3m or 87% of the population in the 1992 census to 4.4m or 60% in 2011 and 4.1m or 63% in 2021, and Islam from 1.1m or 13% in 1992 to 0.6m or 10% in 2021. Over the same timespan, Protestantism and other non-Eastern Orthodox and non-Catholic Christianities have grown from about twenty thousand or 0.3% of the population in 1992 to about eighty thousand or 1.3% in 2021, while unaffiliated people, comprising both not religious people and people who have some belief but not identifiable with any specific religion, have grown from 0.3m or 4% in 2001 to 1m or 16% in 2021. Until the 1992 census, Bulgarians were obliged to declare the historic religious belonging of their parents and/or ancestors, while since 2001 people were allowed to declare personal affiliation or unaffiliation to any religion. Moreover, beginning with the 2011 census, Bulgarians were allowed to avoid giving any answer to the question about religion; 22% of the population in 2011 and 9.5% in 2021 did not answer.
After the end of the socialist and one-party People's Republic of Bulgaria (1946–1990) and the transition of the country to a parliamentary republic, the revival of Islam was stronger than that of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has witnessed a serious decline in its membership from 2001 onwards. The authority of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was undermined since the 1990s because of its collaboration with the erstwhile socialist regime, which was fully revealed with the opening of the state's secret archives in 2012, according to which eighty percent of the clergy were former members of the secret police. Article 13 of the Constitution of Bulgaria designates Eastern Orthodox Christianity as the traditional religion of the country, but guarantees the free exercise of any religion, that religion is separate from the state, and that it shall not be used for political aims; Article 37 affirms that the freedom of choice of different religious or irreligious views is inviolable, and the state shall safeguard the harmony between them. Unlike former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Bulgaria has not experienced any significant ethnic or religious strife, and the religious communities of the country coexist peacefully. In fact, the capital Sofia is known for its so-called "Square of Religious Tolerance", where the Church of Saint Nedelya, the Cathedral of Saint Joseph, the Banya Bashi Mosque and the Sofia Synagogue are located within close proximity to each other in the very centre of the city.
Demographics
Census statistics, 1887–2021 + Religious affiliations in Bulgaria, census 1887–2021Official census data provided by the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria:
Religion18871905192619461992200120112021Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number% Christianity 2,450,073 77.7 3,392,140 84.1 4,641,257 84.7 5,967,992+ 84.9+ 7,350,016 86.6 6,638,870 83.7 4,487,554 60.9 4,219,270 64.7 —Bulgarian Orthodox 2,424,371 76.9 3,344,790 82.9 4,568,773 83.4 5,967,992 84.9 7,274,479 85.7 6,552,751 82.6 4,374,135 59.4 4,091,780 62.7 —Protestant 1,358 0.04 5,644 0.1 6,735 0.1 – – 22,067 0,3 42,308 0.5 64,476 0.9 69,852 1.1 —Roman Catholic 18,505 0.6 29,084 0.7 40,347 0.7 – – 53,470 0.6 43,811 0.6 48,945 0.7 38,709 0.6 —Armenian Apostolic 5,839 0.2 12,622 0.3 25,402 0.5 – – 9,672 0.1 6,500 0.1 1,715 0.02 5,002 0.1 —Other Christians* – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 13,927 0.2 Islam 676,215 21.4 603,867 15.0 789,269 14.4 938,418 13.3 1,111,838 13.1 966,978 12.2 577,139 7.8 638,708 9.8 Judaism 24,352 0.8 37,656 0.9 46,431 0.8 43,335 0.6 2,580 0.03 653 0.01 706 0.01 1,736 0.03 Other religions* – – – – – – – – 9,302 0.1 14,284 0.2 9,023 0.1 6,451 0.1 Unaffiliated** – – – – – – – – – – 308,116 3.9 682,162 9.3 1,036,943 15.9 Not answered*** – – – – – – – – – – – – 1,606,269 21.8 616,681 9.5 Total population 3,154,375 4,035,575 5,478,741 7,029,349 8,487,317 7,928,901 7,364,570 6,519,789 *The category "other Christians" was distinguished from "other religions" since the census of 2021.**The category "unaffiliated" comprises those who, since the census of 2001, answered either "no religion" or that they "could/would not define" their religion.***In the census of 2011, Bulgarians were allowed to avoid giving answer to the question on religion, so the category comprises both persons who did not answer the question and who did not file a census return. However, in the 2021 census, the "Not answered" category specifically refers to people who did not submit a census return, whether due to absence or unwillingness to speak to census takers, and whose data were therefore retrieved from administrative sources.
Line chart of the trends, 1887–2021 Census statistics 1887–2021:
Raw data
Religion by province + Religious affiliations in Bulgaria by province, 2021 census*ReligionChristianityIslamOther religionsUnaffiliatedUnansweredNumber%Number%Number%Number%Number% Blagoevgrad 196,841 67.4 52,958 18.1 173 0.1 21,736 7.4 20,519 7.0 Burgas 233,008 61.3 46,320 12.2 350 0.1 66,257 17.4 34,351 9.0 Dobrich 96,386 64.2 26,207 17.5 124 0.1 15,625 10.4 11,804 7.9 Gabrovo 76,802 78.1 4,543 4.6 53 0.05 15,243 15.5 1,746 1.8 Haskovo 134,343 63.5 27,914 13.2 117 0.1 29,028 13.7 20,163 9.5 Kardzhali 19,872 14.1 88,705 62.8 45 0.03 18,862 13.4 13,693 9.7 Kyustendil 96,474 86.3 107 0.1 64 0.1 12,315 11.0 2,776 2.5 Lovech 82,468 70.9 3,009 2.6 56 0.05 28,225 24.2 2,636 2.3 Montana 88,497 73.8 83 0.1 39 0.03 22,992 19.2 8,339 7.0 Pazardzhik 149,934 65.2 29,357 12.8 116 0.1 26,505 11.5 23,902 10.4 Pernik 97,117 85.1 165 0.1 80 0.1 14,800 13.0 2,000 1.8 Pleven 165,004 73.0 5,281 2.3 104 0.05 40,804 18.0 14,927 6.6 Plovdiv 439,779 69.3 39,851 6.3 678 0.1 95,900 15.1 58,289 9.2 Razgrad 34,548 33.5 53,121 51.5 35 0.03 8,862 8.6 6,657 6.4 Ruse 130,955 67.7 25,514 13.2 171 0.1 24,187 12.5 12,656 6.5 Shumen 72,792 48.1 47,752 31.5 82 0.1 18,550 12.2 12,289 8.1 Silistra 45,638 46.7 35,767 36.6 17 0.02 9,965 10.2 6,383 6.5 Sliven 103,380 59.9 11,341 6.6 100 0.1 37,453 21.7 20,416 11.8 Smolyan 23,079 24.0 39,217 40.7 68 0.1 33,115 34.4 805 0.8 Sofia 177,956 76.7 360 0.2 117 0.1 34,896 15.0 18,660 8.0 Sofia City 825,290 64.8 9,828 0.8 4,388 0.3 218,188 17.1 216,596 17.0 Stara Zagora 203,134 68.5 11,899 4.0 228 0.1 53,158 17.9 28,088 9.5 Targovishte 39,836 40.6 39,481 40.2 40 0.04 11,052 11.7 7,735 7.9 Varna 290,407 67.2 25,738 6.0 639 0.1 75,012 17.4 40,402 9.3 Veliko Tarnovo 149,662 72.2 12,525 6.0 190 0.1 30,802 14.9 14,192 6.8 Vidin 64,086 85.0 51 0.1 26 0.03 9,606 12.7 1,639 2.2 Vratsa 107,264 70.2 715 0.5 37 0.02 41,991 27.5 2,806 1.8 Yambol 74,718 68.1 899 0.8 50 0.05 21,814 19.9 12,212 11.1 *–Highlighted in each column's associated colour is the area where that column's religious or irreligious view has its relative highest percentage.–Highlighted in greenish yellow are the religions which have a relative or absolute percentage majority in each province.
Religion by ethnicity + Major ethnic groups of Bulgaria by major religions, 2021 censusReligionBulgariansBulgarian TurksRomani BulgariansNumber%Number%Number% Bulgarian Orthodox Christianity 3,980,131 77.8 4,435 0.9 75,745 28.4 Protestantism 34,152 0.7 – – 32,325 12.1 Roman Catholicism 33,749 0.7 – – – – Islam 107,777 2.1 447,893 88.1 45,817 17.2 Unaffiliated 436,652 8.5 28,817 5.7 78,749 29.5 Not answered 526,033 10.3 27,233 5.4 34,084 12.8 Total population 5,118,494 508,378 266,720
History 7th–14th century — Pagan and Christian Bulgarian empires The Bulgarian nation emerged in the Early Middle Ages (7th–10th century CE) as an amalgam of ethnic elements of different origins: Southern Slavs, who populated the Balkans from the 5th century; pre-Slavic native populations, the Thracians who had been Hellenised and Romanised during the previous foreign dominations; and Bulgars, a Turkic population who migrated from Central Asia to the Danube region and founded the First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018). The Bulgarian khans dominated over this heterogeneous population, whose components originally co-existed as separate communities with their own religious systems and traditions (Slavic paganism the Slavs, Thracian paganism the Thracians, and Tengrism the Bulgars). Christianity was adopted — in its Byzantine Orthodox form, then still part of a United Church, from the neighbouring Byzantine Empire — as an ideological and ethnic homogeniser around 864 by the khan Boris-Mihail; the Christianisation of Bulgaria was largely a political expedient which granted the Bulgarian khans the same status as other European monarchs, but it also met considerable opposition, especially from the aristocracy and even from Boris-Mihail's son and heir to the throne, Vladimir-Rasate, who tried to suppress Christianity and revert to paganism as he saw the former as a tool of political yoke from Byzantium.
In 870, the Christian hierarchs of Bulgaria took part in the Fourth Council of Constantinople, and the council granted the Bulgarian Orthodox Church the status of an autonomous archbishopric under the Patriarchate of Constantinople, from which it obtained its first primate, clergy and theological books. In 919, the Bulgarian knyeaz Simeon adopted the new title "tsar of the Bulgarians and the Romans" (tsar was an adapted form of the Latin title caesar; the change reflected an ideal acquisition of the Roman imperial tradition) and heightened the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to the status of autocephalous patriarchate, independent from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Sixteen years before, in 893, an ecclesiastical council decided to switch to Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) as the liturgical language, and in the meanwhile the Cyrillic alphabet was developed for writing the Slavic language; such changes protected the Bulgarians from Hellenisation, and ultimately would have been fundamental for the later history of part of the Slavic peoples. In 927, the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was recognised by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The emerging Bulgarian Orthodox Church retained many elements of pre-Christian paganisms. Moreover, since the 10th century Bulgarian Christianity was deeply characterised by the Gnostic doctrine of Bogomilism, developed in Bulgaria itself by the priest Bogomil, as well as by the ascetic doctrine of Hesychasm. Both Bogomilism and Hesychasm were highly spiritual, mystical and meditative doctrines and practices, favouring the inner (esoteric) path to God and organised around monasticism, but while the former was dualistic, with an accentuated distinction between spirit and matter, the latter was monistic and spread to Bulgaria largely as a reaction to the former.
14th–19th century — Ottoman Bulgaria