Serbia has been a predominantlyChristian country since theChristianization of Serbs byClement of Ohrid andSaint Naum in the 9th century. The dominant confession isEastern Orthodoxy in the fold ofSerbian Orthodox Church.

During theOttoman rule of theBalkans,Sunni Islam established itself in the territories of Serbia, mainly in southern regions ofRaška andPreševo Valley, as well as in what is today the disputed territory ofKosovo and Metohija. TheCatholic Church has roots in the country since the presence ofHungarians inVojvodina (mainly in the northern part of the province), whileProtestantism arrived in the 18th and 19th centuries with the settlement of Slovaks in Vojvodina.

Most Serbians are adherents of theSerbian Orthodox Church, while theRomanian Orthodox Church is also present in parts ofVojvodina inhabited by an ethnicRomanian minority. BesidesSerbs, other Eastern Orthodox Christians includeMontenegrins,Romanians andVlachs,Macedonians,Bulgarians, and majority ofRoma.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity predominates throughout most of Serbia. It is less prevalent in several municipalities and cities near borders with neighboring countries, where adherents ofIslam or Catholicism are more numerous, and two predominantly Protestant municipalities in Vojvodina. Eastern Orthodoxy also predominates in most of Serbia's large cities, except forSubotica (mostly Catholic) andNovi Pazar (mostly Muslim).

The identity of ethnic Serbs was historically largely based on Eastern Orthodox Christianity and on the Serbian Orthodox Church, to the extent that there are claims^{[by whom?]} that those not among its faithful are not Serbs. However, the conversion of the south Slavs frompaganism to Christianity took place before theGreat Schism, the split between the Greek East and the Latin West. After the Schism, generally speaking, those Christians who lived within the Eastern Orthodox sphere of influence became "Eastern Orthodox" and those who lived within the Catholic sphere of influence, under Rome as the patriarchal see of the West, became "Catholic". Some ethnologists consider that the distinct Serb and Croat identities relate to religion rather than ethnicity. Since the second half of the 19th century, some Serbs have converted to Protestantism, while historically some Serbs also wereLatin Catholic (especially inDalmatia) orEastern Catholic.

Catholicism is present mostly in the northern part of Vojvodina, notably in the municipalities with aHungarian ethnic majority (Bačka Topola,Mali Iđoš,Kanjiža,Senta,Ada,Čoka), the multi-ethnic city of Subotica, and the multi-ethnic municipality ofBečej. It is represented mainly by the following ethnic groups:Hungarians,Croats,Bunjevci,Germans,Slovenes,Czechs,Bulgarians, etc. A smaller number ofRoma people,Slovaks and Serbs are also Catholic. The ethnicRusyns and a smaller part of the ethnicUkrainians are primarilyEastern Rite Catholics.

The largest percentage of Protestant Christians in Serbia on the municipal level is in the municipalities ofBački Petrovac andKovačica, where an absolute or relative majority of the population are ethnicSlovaks (most of whom are adherents of Protestant Christianity). Some members of other ethnic groups (especially Serbs in absolute terms and Hungarians and Germans in proportional terms) are also adherents of various forms of Protestant Christianity.

There are various Protestant groups in the country, includingMethodists,Seventh-day Adventists, and Evangelical Baptists (Nazarene). Many of these groups are situated in the culturally diverse province of Vojvodina. Protestantism (mostly in its Nazarene form) started to spread amongSerbs in Vojvodina in the last decades of the 19th century. BeforeWorld War II, the number of Protestants in the region was larger.

According to the 2011 census, the largest Protestant communities were recorded in the municipalities of Kovačica (11,349) and Bački Petrovac (8,516), as well as inStara Pazova (4,940) and the second largest Serbian cityNovi Sad (8,499), which are predominantly Eastern Orthodox.^[7] While Protestants from Kovačica, Bački Petrovac, and Stara Pazova are mostly Slovaks and members of theSlovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Serbia, services in most of the Protestant churches in Novi Sad are performed inSerbian.^[8]

With the arrival of theOttoman Empire, some Serbsconverted to Islam. This was particularly, but not wholly, so inOttoman Bosnia. The best known Muslim Serb is probably eitherMehmed Paša Sokolović orMeša Selimović.

Today, Islam is mostly present in southwest Serbia, in the regions ofSandžak andRaška (notably in the city of Novi Pazar and municipalities ofTutin andSjenica), as well as in parts of southern Serbia (municipalities ofPreševo andBujanovac). Ethnic groups whose members are mostly adherents of Islam are:Bosniaks,ethnic Muslims,Albanians, andGorani. A significant number ofRoma people are also adherents of Islam. Predominantly Muslim Albanians who boycotted the census in 2011 decided to participate in 2022 census.

Adherents belong to one of two communities –Islamic Community of Serbia or theIslamic Community in Serbia.

As of 2011, out of 787 declaredJews in Serbia, 578 stated their religion as Judaism, mostly in the cities ofBelgrade (286), Novi Sad (84), Subotica (75) andPančevo (31).^[7] The only remaining functioningsynagogue in Serbia is theBelgrade Synagogue. There are also small numbers of Jews in Zrenjanin and Sombor, with isolated families scattered throughout the rest of Serbia.

About 1.1% of the Serbian population isatheist. Religiosity was lowest inNovi Beograd, with 3.5% of population being atheists (compare towhole of Belgrade's andNovi Sad's 1.5%) and highest in rural parts of the country, where atheism in most municipalities went below 0.01%.^[9]

In a 2009 Gallup poll, 44% of respondents in Serbia answered 'no' to the question "Is religion an important part of your daily life?"^[10]

APew Research Center poll conducted from June 2015 to July 2016 found that 2% ofSerbia were atheists, while 10% stated that they "Do not believe in God".^[11]

Public schools allow religious teaching in cooperation with religious communities having agreements with the state, but attendance is not mandated. Religion classes (Serbian:verska nastava) are organized in public elementary and secondary schools, most commonly coordinated with the Serbian Orthodox Church, but also with the Catholic Church and Islamic community.

Public holidays in Serbia also include thereligious festivals of Eastern Orthodox Christmas and Easter.Saint Sava Day is a working holiday celebrated as a Day of Spirituality as well as Day of Education. Believers of other faiths are legally allowed to celebrate their religious holidays.

The government of Serbia does not keep records of religiously motivated violence. However reports from religious leaders in 2022 noted that incidents have gone down, and Jewish leaders reported no incidents at all in that year.^[12]

The laws of Serbia establishfreedom of religion, forbid the establishment of astate religion, and outlawreligious discrimination. While registration with the government is not necessary for religious groups to practice, the government confers certain privileges to registered groups. The government maintains a two-tiered system of registered groups, split between "traditional" groups and "nontraditional" groups. Minority groups and independent observers have complained that this system comprises religious discrimination, especially as the media regularly names nontraditional groups as 'sects'.^[12]

Themedia and individual members of theNational Assembly have been criticized for using disparaging language when referring to nontraditional groups.Antisemitic literature is commonly available in bookstores, and is prevalent online.^[12]

Although religious freedom was largely respected by the government of theKingdom of Yugoslavia^[13][14] and Serbia's constitutions through its various incarnations as either an independent state or as part of Yugoslavia have nominally upheld religious freedom,^[15] it was also the site of significant religiously and ethnically-motivated war crimes during World War II^[16] and theYugoslav Wars.^[17] The government has programs established for the restitution of property confiscated by the government ofYugoslavia afterWorld War II, and for property lost inthe Holocaust.

In 2023,Freedom House rated Serbia 4 out of 4 on the question "Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private?".^[18]

• Religion in Vojvodina

• Kuburić, Z., 2010. Verske zajednice u Srbiji i verska distanca. CEIR—Centar za empirijska istraživanja religije.
• Radić, Radmila (2007). "Serbian Christianity".The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 231–248.ISBN 9780470766392.
• Radisavljević-Ćiparizović, D., 2002. Religija i svakodnevni život: vezanost ljudi za religiju i crkvu u Srbiji krajem devedesetih. Srbija krajem milenijuma: Razaranje društva, promene i svakodnevni život.
• Radulović, L.B., 2012. Religija ovde i sada: revitalizacije religije u Srbiji. Srpski geneaološki centar, Odeljenje za etnologiju i antropologiju Filozofskog fakulteta.
• Blagojević, M., 2011. „Aktuelna religioznost građana Srbije “, u A. Mladenović (prir.). Religioznost u Srbiji 2010, pp. 43–72.
• Đorđević, D.B., 2005. Religije i veroispovesti nacionalnih manjina u Srbiji. Sociologija, 47(3), pp. 193–212.
• Đukić, V., 2008. Religije Srbije–mreža dijaloga i saradnje.
• Ilić, A., 2013. Odnos religije i društva u današnjoj Srbiji. Religija i Tolerancija, 1(3).
• Kuburić, Z. and Gavrilović, D., 2013. Verovanje i pripadanje u savremenoj Srbiji. Religija i Tolerancija, (1).

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