Religion in Portugal

Religion in Portugal (Census 2011)

Portugal has no official religion. The most predominant religion in Portugal is Christianity, mainly is Catholicism. According to the 2011 Census, 81% of the population of Portugal is Catholic, though only about 19% attend Mass and take the sacraments regularly, while a larger number wish to be baptized, married in a church, and receive Last Rites.

Although Church and State were formally separated during the Portuguese First Republic (1910–1926), a separation reiterated in the constitution of 1976, Roman Catholic precepts continue to have a significant bearing in Portuguese society and culture. The educational and health care systems were for a long time the Church's preserve, and in many cases, whenever a building, bridge, or highway was opened, it received a blessing from the Clergy.

Although Church and State are formally separate, the Catholic Church still receives certain privileges. Statistically, religious practice increases with increasing age, the younger generations showing less evidence of religious practice than the older.

As in most provinces of the Roman Empire, the religious beliefs and deities of the Pre-Roman populations mingled and coexisted with Roman mythology. In the Portuguese case, those Pre-Roman religions where basically Proto-Celtic or Celtic, chief amongst them that of the Lusitanians' (see Lusitanian mythology).

Jewish populations have existed in the area, going back to the Roman era or even before that, and are directly related to Sephardi history.

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