Religion in Italy

Religion in Italy according to the Global Religious Landscape survey by the Pew Forum, 2012

Religion in Italy is characterised by the predominance of Christianity and an increasing diversity of religious practices, beliefs and denominations. Most Christians in Italy adhere to the Catholic Church.

According to the 2012 Global Religious Landscape survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (an American think tank), 83.3% of Italy's residents are Christians, 12.4% are irreligious, atheist or agnostic, 3.7% are Muslims and 0.6% adhere to other religions. According to other sources, up to 10% of residents, including both Italian citizens and foreign residents, professes a faith different from Catholicism and the number of atheists and agnostics is rising. Among religious minorities, Islam is the largest, followed by Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism.

Regarding Italian citizens, according to a 2006 survey by (an Italian research centre), Catholics made up 87.8% of the population, with 36.8% describing themselves as observants. According to the same poll in 2010, those percentages fell to 76.5% and 24.4%, respectively. Other sources give different accounts of Italy's Islamic population, usually around 2%. In 2016 Eurispes found that 71.1% of Italians were Catholic, 5 points down from 2010, but their religious practice was on the rise at 25.4%.

The country's Catholic patron saints are Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Siena.

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