Christianity in Indonesia

Christianity is Indonesia's second-largest religion, after Islam. Indonesia also has the second largest Christian population in Southeast Asia after the Philippines, the largest Protestant population in Southeast Asia, and the 4th largest Christian in Asia after the Philippines, India and China. Indonesia's 24 million Christians constitute 10% of the country's population, with 7% Protestant (17 million) and 3% Catholic (7 million).

Christianity, a minority religion in Indonesia, is not evenly spread throughout the archipelago. Indonesian provinces with a majority of the population self-identifying as Christian are Papua, West Papua, East Nusa Tenggara, and North Sulawesi.

Among Indonesian provinces in 2010, Aceh reported the fifth smallest number of Christians (53,624) or 0.23% of Christians within Indonesia. Aceh had the second smallest percentage (among religions reported in the province) of Christians (1.19%), effectively tying with Gorontalo for the smallest percentage of Catholics (0.07%) and including the third smallest percentage of Protestants (1.12%).

Sumatra's northern-most province, Aceh, operates Sharia law and all regencies are 99%+ Muslim, with the exception of Aceh Singkil (11.2% Christian) and Southeast Aceh (18.7% Christian). Both areas' Christian populations consist of ethnic groups whose homelands lie outside Aceh – in Aceh Singkil, Christians are mostly Pakpak people, whose homeland is to the east of Aceh Singkil, in Pakpak Bharat regency, of North Sumatra, as well as a small population of Nias people, on the Banyak Islands; in Southeast Aceh, the Christian population consists of Karo people, whose homeland lies to the south, in the Karo Regency of North Sumatra.

There are more than 100 churches, serving Southeast Aceh's 20,000 Christians, but the government of Aceh Singkil permits only one church, and four chapels for its 10,000 Christians. As a result, there are approximately two dozen illegal churches in the regency, which the government periodically orders to be closed, and from time-to-time they are the subject of arson attacks, from Muslim mobs.

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