An Overview of Religious Belonging Percentage in Albania

Justinian Topulli

Abstract

Albania is characterized by the centuries-old presence of the two world religions, Islam and Christianity, with its two largest branches, the Catholic and the Orthodox Church. During the communist regime, religion was banned and the country was declared an atheist by the constitution of 1967. From that period until 2011, there was no state-level religious registration. In 2011 the National Census was conducted which included in its questionnaire the question of religious affiliation. The results given by this census in this regard were debated and rejected by some as unrealistic. But meanwhile, rarely tried anyone to consider other data in this regard. This research focuses exactly on the percentage of the religious affiliation of the citizens of the Republic of Albania presented not only by the Census but also by 21 surveys conducted by various institutions in the period from 1991 to 2019.

Presentation