A recent official census of religious identity in Hungary offered bad news for those concerned with the future of Christianity in central Europe.
For the first time, a majority of Hungarians (56.6%) failed to declare membership of a faith tradition, with 16.5% declaring “no religion” and a further 40.1% choosing not to answer the question at all.
While all the country’s main denominations were hit badly, results for the Roman Catholic Church, historically the nation’s majority tradition, were worst of all — a drop of 1.1 million (nearly 30%), compared to 2011. The numbers went from an estimated 3.69 million people identifying as Catholics in 2011 to 2.6 million today.
Combined with a smaller loss between 2001 and 2011, Hungary’s Catholic population has shrunk an astounding 50% this century, to just 27.5% of the population.
These facts contrast starkly with the rhetoric of Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s far-right prime minister, who has described ”Christian Hungary” as a supposed bulwark against immigration of Muslims and other religious minorities into Europe.