The most widely professed religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Islam and the second largest religion is Christianity. Nearly all the Muslims of Bosnia are followers of the Sunni denomination of Islam; the majority of Sunnis follow the Hanafi legal school of thought (fiqh) and Maturidi theological school of thought (kalām). Bosniaks are generally associated with Islam, Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Catholicism, and Bosnian Serbs with Eastern Orthodoxy. The State Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the entity Constitutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska provide for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this right in ethnically integrated areas or in areas where government officials are of the majority religion; the state-level Law on Religious Freedom also provides comprehensive rights to religious communities. However, local authorities sometimes restricted the right to worship of adherents of religious groups in areas where such persons are in the minority.
Government protection of religious freedom declined, especially during the campaign period prior to the October 2006 national elections, due to selective legal enforcement and the indifference of some government officials. At the end of the period covered by this report, the Government was implementing the State Law on Religious Freedom to protect the rights of religious communities and create a government registry allowing them to establish legal status.
Societal abuses and discrimination based on religious belief and practice persisted. Religious intolerance directly reflected ethnic intolerance because of the virtually indistinguishable identification of ethnicity with religious background. Discrimination against religious minorities occurred in nearly all parts of the country. In some communities, local religious leaders and politicians contributed to intolerance and an increase in nationalism through public statements and sermons. A number of illegally constructed religious objects continued to cause ethnic/religious tension and conflict in various communities. Religious symbols were often misused for political purposes.
In a 2009 Gallup poll, 77% of respondents in Bosnia and Herzegovina answered 'yes' to the question "Is religion an important part of your daily life?", while 21% responded negatively. According to a 2015 Pew Research poll, 31% of Bosnian Muslims, 10% of Orthodox Christians and 54% of Catholic Christians reported attending religious services once a week or more than once a week.
Demographics
According to the most recent census, conducted in 2013 and whose results were published in 2016, Muslims today constitute 51.33% of the population; traditional Christians (Catholic and Orthodox), constitute 45.94%; and other groups, including Protestants, Jews and nonreligious persons, constitute 3.36%, although these figures are often disputed by Bosnia's Serb community. In 2022, the Jewish community had fewer than 900 believers. Most of them being Sephardic Jews.
The rate of religious observance is relatively low among the traditional religious groups; however, some areas of significantly greater observance exist, such as among Catholic Croats in the Herzegovina region and among Bosnian Muslims in central Bosnia. For many Bosnian Muslims, religion often serves as a community or ethnic identifier, and religious practice is confined to occasional visits to the mosque or significant rites of passage such as birth, marriage, and death. Nevertheless, religious leaders from the Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox communities claimed that all forms of observance were increasing among young persons as an expression of increased identification with their ethnic heritage, in large part due to the national religious revival that occurred as a result of the 1992–95 Bosnian war. Younger believers who grew up in the post-communist period also have more freedom to practice their religion and more access to religious education. Leaders from the three largest religious communities observed that they enjoyed greater support from their believers in rural areas of Bosnia than from those in urban centers such as Sarajevo or Banja Luka.
Ethnic cleansing during the 1992–95 war caused internal migration and refugee flows, which segregated the population into separate ethnoreligious areas. Increased levels of returns, which peaked in 2002, continued to slow significantly, leaving the majority of Serbian Orthodox adherents living in the RS and the majority of Muslims and Catholics in the Federation. Within the Federation, distinct Muslim and Catholic majority areas remain. However, returns of Serbian Orthodox adherents and Muslims in recent years to their prewar homes in western Bosnia and Muslims to their prewar homes in eastern Bosnia have shifted the ethnoreligious composition in both areas. For example, the prewar population of the eastern RS town of Bratunac was 64% Bosniak. In 1995 the population was almost completely Serb; in 2007, after the return of 6,500 Bosniaks, the population was 38% Bosniak. Similarly, in Prijedor Municipality in the RS, approximately half of the prewar Bosniak population of 49,500 returned, partially reversing the effects of ethnic cleansing. Christians, on the other hand, seem to rarely move back to their old towns; the number of Catholics returning to central Bosnia and the RS, as well as of Serbs returning to the Federation, was negligible.The Catholic community maintains its Bishops' Conference as an overarching organizational and regional structure, with bishops residing in Mostar, Banja Luka, and Sarajevo; the Franciscan order maintains its strongest presence in central Bosnia, in Sarajevo,Franjevački provincijalat Bosne Srebrene, Kontaktirjte Nas (in Bosnian), accessed 21 August 2022 and in Herzegovina. The Serbian Orthodox Church maintains its greatest influence in the RS, with the most influential bishops residing in Banja Luka, Trebinje, and Bijeljina. The Jewish community, like most other small religious groups in Bosnia, including Protestants, has its strongest membership in Sarajevo. There are several small Christian denominations throughout the country. In late 2011, a Rodnover association named Svaroži Krug, was established in the nation as a part of the panslavic Praskozorje movement.
Majority religions Islam
Islam is the largest of the three main faiths in Bosnia and Herzegovina, making up a bit more than half of the nation's population. The first Muslims were documented in the late 14th century though Islam started spreading in the 15th century. There are eight muftis (Islamic scholars) located in the major municipalities: Sarajevo, Bihać, Travnik, Tuzla, Goražde, Zenica, Mostar, and Banja Luka. The more conservative Islamic communities in Bosnia are located in towns such as Travnik, Zavidovići, Tešanj, Maglaj, Bugojno, and Zenica. 45% of Herzegovinian and Bosnian Muslims described themselves as Sunni Muslims while 47% described themselves as just Muslims. However, 7% of Muslims either refused to answer which Muslim branch they belonged to, said they belonged to no Muslim branch or said they did not know."Chapter 1: Religious Affiliation". The World’s Muslims: Unity and Diversity. Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. August 9, 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
Christianity Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy is the second largest religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina comprising almost a third of the country's population. According to the 2013 census, Eastern Orthodox Christians make up 30.7% of the country's population. It is overwhelmingly followed by the ethnic Serb population in the country, mainly living in Republika Srpska. The Serbian Orthodox Church is the sole Eastern Orthodox jurisdiction in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Catholicism
The Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the third largest religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina making up around less than eighth of the nations population. Catholicism is generally followed by the Croat population which mainly lives in Western Herzegovina. The Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the oldest Church in Bosnia that survived. It has been present since the spread of Catholicism in Europe and has been the largest branch of Christianity up until the 12th century when the Bosnian Church became the largest religious group in Medieval Bosnia.
+Religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina from every population census 1871-2013 (from 1948-1981 the data in the table is from ethnic identification), the data includes a Pew Research Institute estimate from 2020 and the Church statistic of the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2023YearIslam%Eastern Orthodoxy%Catholicism%Judaism%Other%Irreligious (Atheist and Agnostic)%1871870,12849.8%636,20836.4%220,35312.6%3,6690.2%16,0410.9% -1879448,613 38.73% 496,485 42.88% 209,39118.08% 3,4260.29% 2490.02% -1885492,710 36.88% 571,250 42.76% 265,788 19.89% 5,805 0.43% 538 0.02% -1895548,632 34.99% 673,246 42.94% 334,142 21.31% 8,213 0.52% 3,859 0.24% -1910612,137 32.25% 825,418 43.49% 434,061 22.87% 11,868 0.62% 14,560 0.77% -1921588,244 31.07% 829,290 43.87% 444,308 23.58% 28,595 1.58% -1931718,079 30.9% 1,028,139 44.25% 547,949 23.58% 29,388 1.27% -1948788,403* 30.73% 1,136,116* 44.29% 614,123* 23.94% 26,635* 1.04% 1953891,800* 31.32% 1,264,372* 44.40% 654,229* 22.97% 39,398* 1.34% 1961842,247* 25.69% 1,406,053* 42.89% 711,660* 21.72% 42,092* 1.28% 19711,482,430* 39.57% 1,393,148* 37.19% 772,491 20.62% 98,042* 1.62% 19811,630,033* 39.52% 1,320,738* 32.02% 758,140* 18.38%* 343* <0.01% 19911,871,882 42.8% 1,286,828 29.4% 765,993 17.5% 228 <0.01% 201,417 4.6%250,9135.7%20131,812,522 51.33% 1,085,760 30.75% 536,333 15.19% 281 <0.01% 130,054 3.61% 38,669 1.1%2020 Estimate (Pew Research Center)1,770,000 53.6%1,470,000 (Christianity)44.7%20,00030,000 1.1%2023331,2669.9%
Minority religions Judaism
Baháʼí Faith During the interwar period between the World Wars, when Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, several members of Yugoslavian royalty had contact with prominent members of the Baháʼí Faith. In July, 1938, Marie of Edinburgh, a member of the religion and Queen of Romania, died. A message of condolence was communicated, in the name of all Baháʼí communities in East and West, to her daughter, Maria, then Queen of Yugoslavia, to which she replied expressing "sincere thanks to all of Baháʼu'lláh's followers." Later Princess Olga of Yugoslavia, on being informed of the death of Hand of the Cause Martha Root in 1939, remarked “She was so kind and gentle, and a real worker for peace. I am sure she will be sadly missed in her work.”
Following the end of World War II in Yugoslavia and establishment of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a nominally secular state under influence of state atheism, religions became discouraged. The first member of the Baháʼí Faith in Yugoslavia was an isolated Baháʼí in Belgrade who converted to the religion in 1963. Active plans for promoting the religion in the former Yugoslavia were designated in the Six Year Plan (which ran April 1986 to April 1992) and extended in the Two Year Plan during which the region gained several local spiritual assemblies, all under the general guidance of the Bahá'ís of Austria. The first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly was formed in November 1990.