Religion in Norway

Religion in Norway is dominated by Lutheran Christianity, with 61.7% of the population belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway in 2024.Members of The Church of Norway as a percentage of inhabitants (per cent), 2024, 17 March 2025Church of Norway Statistics Norway 17 May 2020

The Catholic Church is the next largest Christian church at 3.1% (status 2019).Members of Christian communities outside the Church of Norway. Statistics Norway 8 December 2020 The growing group of unaffiliated made up 18.3% of the population in 2019. Islam is followed by 3.4% of the population (2019).Members of religious and life stance communities outside the Church of Norway, by religion/life stance. Statistics Norway 8 December 2019

A bill passed in 2016 and effective as of 1 January 2017 created the Church of Norway as an independent legal entity.Offisielt frå statsrådet 27. mai 2016 regjeringen.no "Sanksjon av Stortingets vedtak 18. mai 2016 til lov om endringer i kirkeloven (omdanning av Den norske kirke til eget rettssubjekt m.m.) Lovvedtak 56 (2015–2016) Lov nr. 17 Delt ikraftsetting av lov 27. mai 2016 om endringer i kirkeloven (omdanning av Den norske kirke til eget rettssubjekt m.m.). Loven trer i kraft fra 1. januar 2017 med unntak av romertall I § 3 nr. 8 første og fjerde ledd, § 3 nr. 10 annet punktum og § 5 femte ledd, som trer i kraft 1. juli 2016."Lovvedtak 56 (2015–2016) Vedtak til lov om endringer i kirkeloven (omdanning av Den norske kirke til eget rettssubjekt m.m.) Stortinget.no Until the 2012 constitutional amendment Lutheranism was the state religion of the country.Løsere bånd, men fortsatt statskirke , ABC NyheterStaten skal ikke lenger ansette biskoper , NRK The Church of Norway will still obtain financial support from the state of Norway, along with other religious communities.

Early Norwegians, like most Scandinavians, were once adherents of Norse paganism; the Sámi having a shamanistic religion. Norway was gradually Christianized by Christian missionaries between 1000 and 1150. Before the Protestant Reformation in 1536/1537, Norwegians were part of the Catholic Church.

Demographics In Norway as of 2019, 68.7% of the population are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as compared to 96% in the 1960s. As of 2024, 61.7% of the population belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway.Members of The Church of Norway as a percentage of inhabitants (per cent), 2024, 17 March 2025

A 1997 global study of freedom of religion states that "Most members of the state church are not active adherents, except for the rituals of birth, confirmation, weddings, and burials. Some 3 per cent on average attend church on Sunday and 10 per cent on average attend church every month."Freedom of Religion and Belief: A World Report (Routledge, 1997), page 351.

Other religious groups operate freely and people are also free not to be affiliated with any religion or life stance. Approximately 18.3% are not members of any official religious or philosophical communities, while about 13.0% of the population are members of other religious or philosophical communities outside the Church of Norway. Catholics and Muslims are each about 3% of the population and have been rising in numbers in recent years. About 1.8% of the population lists the Norwegian Humanist Association as a life stance instead of a religion. Orthodox, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs are present in very small numbers, together comprising about 1 percent of the population.

However officially belonging to a religion does not necessarily reflect actual religious beliefs and practices. In 2005, a survey conducted in sixty-five countries indicated that Norway was the least religious country in Western Europe, with 29% counting themselves as believing in a church or deity, 26% as being atheists, and 45% not being entirely certain.

According to the Eurobarometer Poll of 2010:-Biotechnology report 2010 p.383

22% of Norwegian citizens responded that "they believe there is a God". 44% responded that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force". 29% responded that "they don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force". 5% gave no response.

According to 2016 data from annual social-cultural study Norwegian Monitor (Norsk Monitor), 39 percent of Norwegians responded with "No" to the question "Do you believe in God?", while 37 percent said "Yes" and 27 percent said that they did not know. The survey also showed that women are more likely to believe in God than men and that faith in God is stronger among the old than the young.

In a 2018 European Values Study 47.1% of the Norwegian population answered "Yes" to the question "Do you believe in God?" as opposed to the 52.9% that answered "No". The country ranked fourth among the 30 countries surveyed.

Census Religion (on 31 December 2019) Members Percent Growth (2014–2019) Christianity 4,059,366 75.63% -2.0Church of Norway 3,686,715 68.68% −4.1%Catholic Church 165,254In 2015 the bishop of the Diocese of Oslo, Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, and his financial manager were charged with fraud for adding up to 65,000 extra names to the Catholic membership list over the previous several years. 3.08% 72.8%Pentecostal congregations 40,725 0.76% 4.0%Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Church 28,544 0.53% 63.3%Evangelical Lutheran Free Church 19,313 0.36% −1.0%Jehovah's Witnesses 12,661 0.24% 2.9%Baptists 10,823 0.20% 5.1%The Methodist Church in Norway 10,000 0.19% −5.4%Other Christianity 85,331 1.59% −6.8% Non-Christian religions 225,138 4.19% 29.2%Islam 182,826 3.41% 29.6%Buddhism 21,555 0.40% 19.9%Hinduism 12,153 0.23% 48.6%Sikhism 4,080 0.08% 19.0%Baháʼí Faith 1,091 0.02% −3.8%Judaism 794 0.01% 6.3%Other religions and life stances 2,639 0.05% 51.2%Humanism 99,468 1.85% 12.8% no affiliation 983,608 18.32% 28.9% TotalPopulation Statistics Norway 5,367,580 100.0% 3.9%

Religions Christianity

From conversion to the Reformation The conversion of Norway to Christianity began in the 1000s. The raids on the British isles and on the Frankish kingdoms had brought the Vikings in touch with Christianity. Haakon the Good of Norway, who had grown up in England, tried to introduce Christianity in the mid-10th century but had met resistance from pagan leaders and soon abandoned the idea.

Anglo-Saxon missionaries from England and Germany had tried to convert Norwegians to Christianity but only had limited success. However, they succeeded in converting Olaf I of Norway to Christianity. Olaf II of Norway (later Saint Olaf) had more success in his attempts to convert the population with many Norwegians converting in the process, and he is credited with Christianizing Norway.

The Christians in Norway often established churches or other holy sites at places that had previously been sacred under the Norse religion. The spread of conversion can be measured by burial sites as Pagans were buried with grave goods while Christians were not. Christianity had become well established in Norway by the middle of the 11th century and had become dominant by the middle of the 12th century. Stave churches were built of wood without the use of nails in the 13th century.

From the Reformation to the present

The Norwegians were Catholics until the Danish king Christian III of Denmark ordered Denmark to convert to Lutheranism in 1536 and, as Norway was then ruled by Denmark, the Norwegians converted as well. The Danish Church Ordinance was introduced in 1537 and a Norwegian Church Council officially adopted Lutheranism in 1539. Monasteries were dissolved and church property confiscated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway established and funded by the state. Bishops still adhering to Catholicism were deposed, with Olav, Archbishop of Nidaros, fleeing the country in 1537 and another bishop dying in prison in 1542. Catholicism held on in remote parts of Norway for another couple of decades, although eventually the remaining Catholics converted or fled, to the Netherlands in particular. Many pastors were replaced with Danes and Norwegian clergy being trained at the University of Copenhagen as Norway did not have a university. The Danish translation of the Bible was used as were Danish catechisms and hymns. The use of Danish in religious ceremonies had a strong influence on the development of the Norwegian language.

The church undertook a program to convert the Sámi in the 16th and 17th centuries with the program being largely successful. The University of Oslo was established in 1811 allowing priests to train in Norway. The Norwegian Constitution of 1814 did not grant religious freedom as it stated that Jews and Jesuits were denied entrance in Norway. Moreover, adherence to Lutheran Christianity was compulsory, and so was church attendance. A ban on lay preaching was lifted in 1842, allowing several free church movements and a strong lay movement being established in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Three years later, the so-called Dissenter Law came into effect, allowing other Christian congregations to establish in Norway. Atheism became allowed as well, and the ban on Judaism was lifted in 1851. Monasticism and Jesuits were allowed, starting in 1897 and 1956 respectively.

The Norwegian Constitution was amended in 1964 allowing freedom of religion; the exceptions are the Norwegian royal family, who are required by the constitution to be Lutherans. Furthermore, at least one half of the government must belong to the state church. On 21 May 2012 the constitution was again amended to increase the autonomy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and decrease the connection to the state.

Church pastors were active in the Norwegian resistance movement during World War II. The state church was also active in the moral debate which arose in the 1950s.

Islam

Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in Norway with about 3.4% of the population officially (about 182,000 people in 2019) and has increased by 29.6% since 2014. In 2006, 56% lived in the counties of Oslo and Akershus. Some sources report that the numbers are higher than those on the official records; the Pew Foundation calculates the number of Muslims in Norway for 2010 at about 144,000 and projects the numbers to reach 359,000 by 2030. For 2013, Professor Leirvik of the University of Oslo estimates regarding the number of people of Muslim background though not necessarily practicing in Norway at about 220,000 including people from Pakistan, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iran, and Morocco. In the end of the 1990s, Islam passed the Catholic Church and Pentecostalism to become the largest minority religion in Norway (though the Catholics have regained ground since), provided Islam is seen as one united grouping, as there are different denominations in existence, such as Sunni, Shia and Ahmadiyya. In 2009, the registered Muslims were members of 126 different congregations.

Judaism

There were never many Jews in Norway. Although there are no indications of active persecution, Jews were banned from entering and residing in the dual monarchy of Denmark-Norway for long periods of time. After the split with Denmark in 1814, the new Norwegian Constitution included a notorious paragraph that banned Jews and Jesuits from entering the realm. The paragraph, which was abolished with regard to Jews in 1851 after strong political debate, appears to have been primarily aimed at the Jewish Messianic revival movements in Eastern Europe at the time, since the Sephardi and Western European Jews in many cases seem to have been exempted.

Shechita, Jewish kosher slaughter, has been banned in Norway since 1929.

741 Norwegian Jews were murdered during the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II, and in 1946 there were only 559 Jews registered living in Norway.

Buddhism