Religion in Norway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Religion in Norway is dominated by Lutheran Christianity, with 63.7% of the population belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway in 2022.[1][2] The Catholic Church is the next largest Christian church at 3.1%.[3] The unaffiliated make up 18.3% of the population. Islam is followed by 3.4% of the population.[4]
A bill passed in 2016 and effective as of 1 January 2017 created the Church of Norway as an independent legal entity.[5][6] Until the 2012 constitutional amendment Lutheranism was the state religion of the country.[7][8][9][10] The Church of Norway will still obtain financial support from the state of Norway, along with other religious communities.[11][12]
Early Norwegians, like most Scandinavians, were once adherents of Norse paganism; the Sámi having a shamanistic religion.[13] 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.