Irreligion in Croatia

Irreligious Croatians

"Without god, without a master", slogan of atheistic campaign from 2009
Total population
Population in Croatia: 4,284,889 Not religious or spiritual: 301,371 (2011)
Regions with significant populations
Istria County, Croatian Littoral, Gorski kotar, Zagreb
Religions
Irreligion (iIncluding agnosticism, atheism, deism, skepticism, freethought/freethinker, secular humanism, ignosticism, apatheism, Nonbeliever, nontheism, rationalism)

Irreligion in Croatia refers in its narrowest sense to agnosticism, atheism, secular humanism, and general secularism of at least 300.000 non-religious Croatian citizens. Increase of the number of irreligious people is usually interpreted by the modernization marked with tendency of secularization and the progress of science and technology that directly affect human society.

Although 2011 census showed that 7% of Croatian citizens considered themselves irreligious, Gallup polls conducted in 2007 and 2008 found that 30.5% of respondents do not consider religion important in their lives, responding negatively to the question "Does religion has an important place in your life?"

Japanese research center Dentsu conducted survey in 2006 and concluded that 13.2% of the Croatian population declare themselves as irreligious.Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2010 questioned the religiosity in European countries on the basis of personal beliefs that "God exists", that "there is some sort of spirit or life force" and that "there is no sort of spirit, God or life force". 69% of respondents stated that they believed that God existed, 22% believed that there was some sort of spirit or life force, while 7% believed that there was none of the above.

Some evidences suggests that irreligion is the fastest growing religious status in Croatia. Number of agnostics and skeptics rose more than 20 times in the last ten years, while the number of atheists almost doubled. Increase of the number of agnostics in Croatia is usually explained by the fact that many public figures, such as President Ivo Josipović, more often declare themselves as agnostics. Several organisations that promote irreligious or oppose religious belief, such as Protagora, David, Glas razuma - Pokret za sekularnu Hrvatsku, Nisam vjernik, were founded in the last decade. They organised several public actions such as the "Conference of reason" and campaign "Without god, without a master".

2011 census revealed that there were 32,518 agnostics and skeptics and 163,375 atheists in Croatia. Slightly more than 93,000 refused to answer on question about their religion. In addition, religion is unknown for 12,460 citizens. Highest percentage of irreligious people in Croatia was recorded in Zagreb (11.56%). Istria, Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Split-Dalmatia are the only counties in which the number of irreligious people exceed 30.000. Looking at the relative share in the population by county, the highest number of irreligious people live in the northwest Croatia, namely in Istria (15.88%) and Primorje-Gorski Kotar (12.11%) counties and the City of Zagreb (11.56%). These three are the only counties where the proportion of irreligious people in the total population exceeds 10%.