Most people in Belgium do not belong to a religion. Christianity is the largest religion, with the Catholic Church representing the largest community. Catholicism has experienced a significant decline since the 1950s when it was the nominal religion of over 80% of the population. Belgium's policy separates the state from the church, and freedom of religion is guaranteed by the country's constitution.
According to the European Social Survey in 2023, people who did not belong to a religion comprised 59% of the Belgian population. The share of Christians was 34%, with Catholicism being the largest denomination at 31% of the population. Protestants and other Christians comprised 2% and Orthodox Christians comprised 1%. Islam is the second largest religion with 6% of the population being Muslim.
Beliefs and practices
According to a 2010 Eurobarometer poll:
37% of Belgian citizens believe there is a god. 31% believe there is some sort of spirit or life force. 27% do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force. 5% declined to answer. In a 2022 Gallup International Association poll, 32% said that they believed in God, while 42% said that they did not.
In a 2023 European Social Survey, most respondents (59%) reported never praying when not at a religious service. A minority of 14% said they prayed daily.
Chronological statistics
Eurel Religiousgroup Population % 1981Eurel-Données sociologiques et juridiques sur la religion en Europe. Also: L. Voyé, K. Dobbelaere, K. Abts. Autres temps, autres mœurs. Bruxelles, Ed. Racine-Campus, 2012. Population % 2009 Christianity 74.5% 52.5% Catholic Christianity 72.0% 50.0% Protestant Christianity and other Christians 2.5% 2.5% Islam 3.0% 5.0% Judaism 0.4% 0.4% Buddhism – 0.3% Atheism 2.5% 9.2% Not religious 21.5% 32.6%
Eurobarometer
Religiousgroup Population % 2015Population % 2018Population % 2019 Population % 2021 Christianity 59% 63% 60% 49% Catholic Christianity51% 57% 54% 44% Protestant Christianity and other Christians6% 5% 5% 4% Orthodox Christianity2% 1%1% 1% Islam 5% 8% 5% 2% Buddhism – – – 1% Other religions and unspecified including "Refusal to answer" and "Do not know" 5% – 4% 7% Atheism 14% 9% 10% 15% Not religious 17% 20% 21% 26%
European Social Survey
The European Social Survey holds regular surveys to measure religious belonging in various countries. They use a two question approach. The first question asked is: "Do you consider yourself as belonging to any particular religion or denomination?". If this question is answered in the affirmative, the second question is "Which one?". The table is calculated by combining the answers to both questions. Religiousgroup 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2023 No religion 50.2% 54% 56.2% 55.8% 57.8% 58.6% 58.8% 54.2% 53.8% 57.6% 58.7% Christian 45.9% 41.3% 40.4% 38.9% 36.8% 33.9% 34.8% 37.2% 37% 35.1% 33.9% Roman Catholic43.9% 40% 38.8% 36.9%34.3% 31.8% 31.6% 35.1%33.6% 31.2% 31.1% Protestant0.6% 0.5% 0.6% 1%1.1% 1.1% 0.9% 0.8%1.4% 1.4% 1.3% Eastern Orthodox0.1% 0.2%0.4% 0.4%0.4% 0.7%1.3% 0.8%1.2% 1.7%0.6% Other Christian1.3% 0.6%0.6% 0.6%1% 0.3%1% 0.5%0.8% 0.8%0.9% Islam 2.8% 3.9% 3.2% 4.1% 4.7% 6.5% 5.8% 7.4% 7.7% 7% 6.4% Jewish 0.1% 0% 0.2% 0.1% 0.3% 0.2% 0% 0% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% Eastern religions 0.2% 0.5% 0.1% 0.4% 0.3% 0.4% 0.4% 0.5% 0.7% 0.2% 0.2% Other 0.6% 0.3% 0% 0.6% 0.1% 0.5% 0.2% 0.6% 0.6% 0.2% 0.6%
Attendance at religious services In 2023 most Belgians (59%) never attended religious services apart from special occasions such as weddings and funerals. Only 7% responded that they had taken part at least once a week.
Government and religion
The Belgian constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respects this right in practice. However, government officials have the authority to research and monitor religious groups that are not officially recognised. There are a few reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice, and some reports of discrimination against minority religious groups.
Belgian law officially recognizes many religions, including Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism, Islam, Judaism, and Eastern Orthodoxy, as well as non-religious philosophical organizations (Dutch: vrijzinnige levensbeschouwelijke organisaties; French: organizations laïques). Buddhism is in the process of being recognized under the secular organization standard. Official recognition means that priests (called "counselors" within the secular organizations) receive a state stipend. Also, parents can choose any recognized denomination to provide religious education to their children if they attend a state school. Adherents to religions that are not officially recognized are not denied the right to practice their religion but do not receive state stipends.
After attaining autonomy from the federal government in religious matters, the Flemish Parliament passed a regional decree installing democratically elected church councils for all recognised religious denominations and making them subject to the same administrative rules as local government bodies, with important repercussions for financial accounting and open government. In 2006, however, Catholic bishops still appointed candidates to the Catholic Church councils because they had not decided on the criteria for eligibility; they were afraid that candidates might be merely baptized Catholics. By 2008, however, the bishops decided that candidates for the church councils had only to prove that they were over 18, a member of the parish church serving the town or village in which they lived, and baptized Catholic.
In 2022, the country was scored 3 out of 4 for religious freedom.
Religions Christianity
Catholicism
Catholicism has traditionally been Belgium's majority religion, with particular strength in Flanders. However, by 2009, Sunday church attendance was 5.4% in Flanders, down from 12.7% in 1998. Nationwide, Sunday church attendance was 5% in 2009, down from 11.2% in 1998.
Until 1998, the Catholic Church annually published key figures such as Sunday mass attendance and the number of baptized children. In 2006, it announced that mass attendance for the Christmas period was 11.5%, and weekly mass attendance (not only on Sundays) was 7%, for the Flanders region. Since 2000, Sunday church attendance in Flanders has dropped by an average of 0.5%–1% each year. In the years 2010 to 2016, 12,442 people in Flanders formally left the Catholic Church.
The “Catholic Church in Belgium 2023” report said that 50% of Belgium's population identified as Catholic in 2022 down from 53% in 2017 with 8.9% attending Mass at least once a month.
Protestantism
In 1566, at the peak of Belgian Reformation, there were an estimated 300,000 Protestants, or 20% of the Belgian population. The Spanish reconquest of the Southern Netherlands in the Eighty Years' War prompted most of the Belgian Protestants to flee to the north or convert, causing the region to again be overwhelmingly Catholic. As of 2017, Protestantism represented 4% of the total population, according to Pew Research.
The Administrative Council of Protestant and Evangelical Religion in Belgium is a coordinating group that mediates between many Protestant groups and the government. The largest Protestant denomination is the United Protestant Church in Belgium, with some 138 affiliated churches.
Belgium had thirteen Anglican churches as of 2012, including the pro-cathedral, Holy Trinity, Brussels. They are part of the Church of England's Diocese in Europe, and of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe.
Orthodox Christianity
Eastern Orthodox Christians made up 1.6% of the total Belgian population in 2015. The region with the greatest proportion of Eastern Orthodox Christians was the Bruxelles-Capital Region, in which they formed 8.3% of the population. The Eastern Orthodox Church in Belgium is subdivided into several canonical jurisdictions: Russian, Ecumenical, Serbian, Romanian, and Bulgarian.
There are significant Armenian communities that reside in Belgium, many of them are descendants of traders who settled during the 19th century. Most Armenian Belgians are adherents of the Armenian Apostolic Church, with smaller numbers belonging to the Armenian Catholic Church or the Armenian Evangelical Church. These churches have not yet received official recognition.
Other Christians
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had a presence in Belgium as early as 1888. On 4 April 2021, church president Russell M. Nelson announce church's intent to construct the Brussels Belgium Temple, the church's first temple in Belgium. The groundbreaking for the temple occurred in 2025. There are an estimated 7000 members of the church in Belgium as of 2025. Islam
In 2015, according to the Eurobarometer survey made by the European Commission, 5.2% of the total Belgian population was Muslim.
As of 2015, it was estimated that 7% of the Belgians (781,887) were Muslims, including 329,749 in Flanders (forming 5.1% of the region's population), 174,136 in Wallonia (4.9%), and 277,867 in Brussels (23.6%).
Judaism
There is a small but long-standing Jewish community concentrated in Antwerp.
Buddhism
Eurobarometer 2015 found only 0.2% of the total Belgian population declaring to be Buddhist. Despite that, one year later Ipsos found that 2% of the working-age, internet connected Belgians were Buddhists. See also About Ipsos Global Trends survey for limitations
Confucianism
According to Ipsos, 1% of the working-age, internet-connected Belgians declared that they believed in Confucianism. This segment of the population may include many – if not all – the Chinese communities in Belgium.
Hinduism
Hinduism forms a negligible but growing minority in Belgium. In 2006, there were about 6,500 Hindus in the country. this increased to 7,901 Hindus in 2015 and 10,000 in 2020. The majority of Hindus in Belgium originate from Nepal, some come from diamond trading communities in India, and some are native converts, mostly of the ISKON movement. In 2023, Hindus in Belgium advocated for official state recognition as a religion in Belgium. Doing so would allow Hindu chaplains and priests to visit prisons and hospitals.
Antoinism
Antoinism is a Christian-inspired new religious movement which was created by Louis-Joseph Antoine (1846–1912). It remains the only significant such movement to originate in Belgium and has adherents in France and elsewhere.
Jainism
Jainism is an Indian religion which has around 2,000 adherents in Belgium (as of 2020), consisting mainly of Indian migrants who specialize in the diamond trade within Antwerp. The Shankheswar Parshvanath Jain temple, which is located in the Antwerpian municipality of Wilrijk, remains the only Jain temple within continental Europe.
History
6th–7th century: Christianisation
After the Roman period, Christianity was brought back to the southern Low Countries by missionary saints like Willibrord and Amandus. In the 7th century, abbeys were founded in remote places, and it was mainly from these abbeys that the Christianization process was started. This process was expanded under the auspices of the Merovingian dynasty, and later by Charlemagne, who even waged war to impose the new religion.
17th–18th century: Catholicism as the state religion
From the Spanish military conquest of 1592 until the re-establishment of religious freedom in 1781 by the Patent of Toleration under Joseph II of Austria, Catholicism was the only religion allowed, on penalty of death, in the territories now forming Belgium. However, a small number of Protestant groups managed to survive at Maria-Horebeke, Dour, Tournai, Eupen, and Hodimont.
19th–20th century