Romania
Religious beliefs in Romania
Being a secular state, Romania has no official or national religion. Majority of the population belongs to the Romanian Orthodox Church with almost 87% observing Eastern Orthodox based on a 2002 census. Other major religions are Roman Catholicism (4.7%), Protestantism (3.7%), Pentecostal congregations (1.5%), and the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church (0.9%); minor religions include Islam and Judaism.
The 2002 census reported almost 19 million Romanians belonging to the Eastern Orthodoxy though the rate of church attendance is low. There are 4 categories in terms of church attendance in Romania based on the September-October 2007 survey: 38% go to church a number of times a month; 20% go to church once a month; 33% visits only once or twice a year; and 7% do not attend church at all. There are at least 1 million Catholics in the country majority of which have Hungarian background and around 300,000 ethnic Romanian Catholics mostly in Transylvania. The Protestant denominations include the Pentecostals, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, and Unitarians. Significant number of Greek Catholics resides in the northern area of Transylvania. According to the 2005 Annuario Pontifico, the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church had about 738,000 followers, numerous bishops, 716 diocesan priests, and almost 350 seminarians by the end of 2003.
