Religion in France is diverse, with the largest religious group being Christianity. A very significant part of the population is not religious, and significant minorities profess Islam and other religions.
Freedom of religion and freedom of thought are warranted by the legacy of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and by the principle of laïcité (or "freedom of conscience") enforced by the 1880s Jules Ferry laws and the 1905 law on the Separation of the Churches and the State. Catholicism was the major religion in the realm of the French monarchy for more than a millennium, and it also held the role of state religion; the monarchy had such close ties to the Roman papacy that France was called the "eldest daughter of the Church" (French: fille aînée de l'Église).
Demographics Census and official statistics, 1851–2020 A series of censuses throughout the 19th century included a question on the religious affiliation of the respondents, with the results depicted in the table below. CensusOfficial statistics yielded by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) and its predecessor, the General Statistics of France (SGF):
— Religion185118611866Number%Number%Number% Christianity 35,679,364 99.7 37,293,230 99.8 37,953,831 99.8 —Catholicism 34,931,032 97.6 36,490,891 97.6 37,107,212 97.5 —Other Christianity 748,332 2.1 802,339 2.2 846,619 2.3 ——Calvinism 480,507 1.3 480,436 1.3 515,759 1.4 ——Lutheranism 267,525 0.7 281,642 0.8 286,506 0.8 ——Other Protestants and Christians – – 40,261 0.1 44,354 0.1 Judaism 73,965 0.2 79,964 0.2 89,047 0.2 Other religions 26,348 0.1 1,295 0.003 1,400 0.004 No religion 3,483 0.01 11,824 0.03 22,786 0.1 Total population 35,783,170 37,386,313 38,067,064 More recently, there has been a series of sample surveys used to determine the religious composition of the population, with the most official ones carried out by the Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, and the government of France. A summary of the statistics is included in the table below. The most recent estimates show a growing percentage of people unaffiliated with an organized religion, particularly with the youngest demographics, while Christianity remains the most followed religion. —
According to a national ten-year survey of 2020 held by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), 34% of the French population between the age of 18 and 49 (and thus excluding the youngest and oldest demographics) adhered to Christianity, of whom approximately 25% were Catholics and 9% other Christians (without further specification; it may include nondenominational Christianity as well as various branches of Protestantism, Eastern Christianity, and other denominations of the religion); at the same time, 11% of the French population adhered to Islam, 0.5% to Buddhism, 0.5% to Judaism, and smaller negligible fractions to other religions (Hinduism and Sikhism, amongst others). At the same time, 53% of the sample declared that they had no religion. Between 2010 and 2020, the INSEE recorded a decline of Catholicism for the same demographics (between 18 and 49 years of age) from 43% to 25%, a growth of nondenominational and other denominations of Christianity from 2.5% to 9%, a growth of Islam from 8% to 11%, and of non-religious people from 45% to 53%, while the proportion of other religions remained stable. + Surveys on religious affiliation of the French populationGovernment dataEurobarometerINSEE (ages 18–49)Religion2020202120092020Christianity504645.534.0 —Catholicism 4742 43.0 25.0—Protestantism212.59.0 —Other Christianity 13 Islam 45 8.0 11.0 Judaism 1 - 0.5 0.5 Buddhism 21 0.5 0.5 Other religions 16 0.5 1.0 No religion 3342 45.0 53.0
Religion by ethnic origins + Religion by ethnic origins in France (in percentage), 2020 national survey Ethnic originsChristianityCatholicismOther ChristiansIslamJudaismBuddhismOther religionNo religion French without immigrant origins 40 32 8 1 0 0 0 58French with immigrant origins First-generation immigrants 32 15 17 44 0 2 1 21 French-born with immigrant background 27 8 19 32 1 1 1 39Overseas French native origins First-generation overseas French natives 56 38 18 10 0 1 1 33 Overseas French native background 51 33 18 2 0 0 1 46Algerian origins First-generation Algerians 0 0 0 89 0 0 0 11 Algerian background 4 3 1 64 0 0 0 32Moroccan and Tunisian origins First-generation Moroccans and Tunisians 0 0 0 89 1 0 0 9 Moroccan and Tunisian background 5 3 2 65 4 0 0 25Sahelian African origins First-generation Sahelian Africans 10 7 3 84 0 0 0 5 Sahelian African background 8 5 3 77 0 0 0 14Gulf of Guinea and Central African origins First-generation Gulf of Guinea and Central Africans 77 34 43 9 0 0 1 13 Gulf of Guinea and Central African background 57 14 43 14 0 0 0 29Other African origins First-generation other Africans 49 20 29 38 0 1 0 12 Other African background 35 20 15 31 0 0 1 33Turkish and Middle Eastern origins First-generation Turks and Middle Easterners 14 5 9 72 0 0 0 13 Turkish and Middle Eastern background 10 4 6 67 2 0 0 20Southeast Asian origins First-generation Southeast Asians 14 11 3 1 0 35 2 48 Southeast Asian background 8 5 3 1 0 23 1 66Chinese origins First-generation Chinese or Chinese background* 7 2 5 0 0 21 0 71Other Asian origins First-generation other Asians 20 12 8 26 0 13 16 24 Other Asian background 20 8 12 19 0 0 23 38Portuguese origins First-generation Portuguese 79 67 12 0 0 0 0 21 Portuguese background 56 40 16 0 0 0 0 43Spanish and Italian origins First-generation Spaniards and Italians 47 40 7 8 2 1 0 42 Spanish and Italian background 45 38 7 1 0 0 0 54Other European origins First-generation other Europeans 58 27 31 3 0 0 0 38 Other European background 45 35 10 1 0 0 0 53 Total French population** 38 29 9 10 0 1 1 51 Highlights in each ethnic category (horizontal row) indicate the respective largest and second-largest religious category (vertical row).*The surveyors were unable to distinguish first-generation Chinese immigrants and French people with Chinese background from past generations.**The results from the total population in this table are different from those in the table above because the surveyors calculated them on slightly different age cohorts.
History
France guarantees freedom of religion as a constitutional right, and the government generally respects this right in practice. Because of a long history of anticlericalism, the state cut its institutional ties with the Catholic Church in 1905 and made a strong promise to keep the public sector free of religion.
Catholicism as a state religion Catholicism is the largest religion in France. During the pre-1789 Ancien Régime, France was traditionally considered the Church's eldest daughter, and the King of France always maintained close links to the Pope. However, the "Gallicanism" policy meant that the king selected bishops.
French Wars of Religion (1562–1598)
A strong Protestant population resided in France, primarily of Reformed confession. The government usually opposed this but at times, tolerated more. This suppression continued throughout the 16th century, culminating in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, until the 1598 Edict of Nantes issued by Henry IV.
For the first time, the state considered Huguenots something other than mere heretics. The Edict of Nantes thus opened a path for secularism and tolerance. In addition to offering general freedom of conscience to subjects, the edict offered many specific concessions to the Huguenots, including amnesty and the reinstatement of their civil rights, the right to work for the state or in any field, and to bring grievances directly to the king.Ruth Whelan, and Carol Baxter, eds. Toleration and religious identity: the Edict of Nantes and its implications in France, Britain and Ireland (Four Courts PressLtd, 2003).
Post–Edict of Nantes (1598–1789)
The 1598 Edict also granted the Protestants places of safety (places de sûreté), military strongholds such as La Rochelle (for which the king paid 180,000 écus a year), along with a further 150 emergency forts (places de refuge), to be maintained at the Huguenots' own expense. Such an innovative act of toleration stood virtually alone in a Europe (except for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) where standard practice forced the subjects of a ruler to follow whatever religion that the ruler formally adopted – the application of the principle of cuius regio, eius religio.
Religious conflicts resumed at the end of the 17th century, when Louis XIV, the "Sun King," initiated the persecution of Huguenots by introducing the dragonnades in 1681. This wave of violence intimidated the Protestants into converting to Catholicism. He made the policy official with the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes. As a result, a large number of Protestants—estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000—left France during the following two decades, seeking asylum in England, the United Provinces, Denmark, the Protestant states of the Holy Roman Empire (Hesse, Brandenburg-Prussia, etc.), and in European colonies in North America and South Africa.
The revocation returned France to a state of affairs similar to that of virtually every other European country of the period, in which only the state religion was tolerated. Europe's experiment with religious tolerance was effectively over for the time being. In practice, the revocation caused France to suffer a brain drain, as it lost a large number of skilled craftsmen, including key designers such as Daniel Marot.
French Revolution
The French Revolution stripped the Catholic Church of most of its wealth, power, and influence. The early revolutionaries sought to secularize all of French society, an effort inspired in part by the writings and philosophy of Voltaire. In August 1789, the new National Assembly abolished tithes, the mandatory 10% income tax which all Frenchmen (including non-Catholics) paid to the Catholic Church. In November 1789, they voted to expropriate the vast wealth of the Church in endowments, lands and buildings.Popkin, Jeremy D (2015). A Short History of the French Revolution. Sixth ed. 2015 In 1790, the Assembly abolished monastic religious orders. Statues and saints were rejected in a burst of iconoclasm, and most religious instruction ended.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 1790 put the Catholic Church under state control. It upended the traditional authority of the Church by requiring priests and bishops to be elected by their parishioners. The Republic legalized divorce and transferred birth, death, and marriage registrations to the state. The Catholic clergy was persecuted by the Paris Commune of 1792 to 1795 and by some of the Représentants en mission. Most notably, Jean-Baptiste Carrier conducted large-scale drownings of priests and nuns in the river Loire.R.R. Palmer,. Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution (1941) pp 220-22.
In 1793, the government established a secular Republican Calendar. Church tradition had set aside every Sunday, together with many saint's days and other religious holidays, as days for celebration and relaxation but the government tried to end all that and to increase the total number of working days. It instituted a 10-day week, allowing one day in 10 for relaxation. Workers and peasants felt cheated and overworked. The new system disrupted daily routines and ended cherished celebrations. When the reformers were overthrown or executed, their radical new calendar was quickly abandoned.