Irreligious Croatians

"Without god, without a master", slogan of atheistic campaign from 2009
Total population
Population in Croatia: 3,871,833 Not religious or spiritual: 247,510 (2021)
Regions with significant populations
Istria County,Primorje-Gorski Kotar County,Zagreb,Split-Dalmatia County

Irreligion in Croatia pertains toatheism,agnosticism, andlack of religious affiliation inCroatia. Even though the 2011 census showed that only 4.57% ofCroats considered themselves irreligious,Gallup polls conducted in 2007 and 2008 found that 30.5% of respondents did not consider religion important in their lives. The Japanese research center,Dentsu, conducted a survey in 2006 concluding that 13.2% of Croats declare themselves irreligious, compared to the 7% found by a 2010Eurobarometer survey across Europe.^[1][2]

Evidence suggests irreligion is the fastest growing religious status in Croatia.^[3] The number of agnostics and skeptics rose by more than 20 times in the last ten years, while the number of atheists almost doubled. The increase in agnosticism is also attributed to public figures declaring themselves agnostic, such as PresidentIvo Josipović.^[4]Several irreligious organizations were founded in the 2000s, such as Protagora, David, Glas razuma - Pokret za sekularnu Hrvatsku, Nisam vjernik. They organized public actions such as the "Conference of reason" and campaign "Without a god, without a master".^[5]

In the 19th century, irreligion in Croatia was associated withanti-clericalism in politics andmodernist literature. Croatian nationalists, such asAnte Starčević,Eugen Kumičić,Stjepan Radić, and,Antun Radić advanced these anti-clerical ideas and were major proponents ofsecularism among the Croatian people. Despite many of them being Catholics themselves, they believed inliberal religious freedoms and feared that ties with theCatholic Church hampered the nation's desires of independence fromAustria-Hungary. Writers such asAntun Gustav Matoš advocated similar beliefs.^[6]

Translations ofCharles Darwin's writings first became available in Croatia in 1869, prompting a shift in the debate on irreligion to focus onDarwinism. Irreligion was seen as closely aligned with the concept, and Darwinism was seen as a major aspect of irreligion in Croatia. The role of Darwinism in Croatian irreligion, particularly in regards toeducation, persists into the 21st century.^[6]

FollowingWorld War II, Croatia became theSocialist Republic of Croatia as part of socialistYugoslavia. Following the Communist takeover,state atheism was imposed. TheConstitution of Yugoslavia nominally guaranteed religious freedom, but religious groups were repressed and irreligion was enforced. Following a period of liberalization toward religion in the 1960s, debate over religion took place in the context of Communism, where irreligion was advocated by supporters of Communism and religion was advocated by critics of Communism.^[7]

Irreligion in Croatia grew during the period of Communist rule, and it fell rapidly following Croatian independence from Yugoslavia. In 1953, 12.5% of Croats identified as irreligious. This number rose to 18% shortly before Croatian independence in 1989, and it fell to 4% in the 1991 census.^[6] Following the reintroduction of Catholicism into mainstream discourse in Croatia, an increase of discrimination against the irreligious has been observed, particularly in schools and government activity.^[6][8]

Although a connection between religion and political preferences has not been rigorously studied, irreligion is prevalent in recent Croatian politics. Five out of six recent Croatian presidential elections resulted in presidents who declared themselves irreligious.Ivica Račan, 7th Prime Minister,Zoran Milanović, 10th Prime Minister and 5th President ofCroatia,^[9] Many public figures are self-declared atheists:Vesna Pusić, formerFirst Deputy Prime Minister andMinister of Foreign and European Affairs,Milanka Opačić, former Deputy Prime Minister andMinister of Social Policy and Youth,Šime Lučin, formerInterior Minister, MPMarija Lugarić.^[10] Some prominent leaders ofNew Atheist activist organizations, namely Neven Barković fromNisam vjernik, publicly expressed support for US-led intervention againstSyrian presidentBashar al-Assad in 2013.^[11]

According to the 2021 census, there are 64,961 agnostics, 182,188 atheists, and slightly less than 20,000 refused to answer. The only counties where the number of irreligious people exceeded 30,000 wereIstria,Primorje-Gorski Kotar andSplit-Dalmatia . The highest number of irreligious people live inIstria (15.83%) andPrimorje-Gorski Kotar (13.74%) counties and the City ofZagreb (13.82%).^[12]

Locally, the largest share of irreligious people in Croatia is inMedulin municipality (23.52%), and from the cities, inPula (23.01%). Towns ofRovinj andVis are the only towns which has more than 20% of the irreligious people in addition to three Zagreb neighborhoods -Donji grad,Gornji Grad–Medveščak andTrnje. In the first 20 Croatian municipalities and cities with the highest proportions of irreligious population are mostly Istrian cities and municipalities ofIstria county andPrimorje-Gorski Kotar county.^[12] Considering each county individually, it can be seen that the largest share of irreligious population generally lives in towns in several counties, often county seats.

On the other hand, municipalities ofLokvičići andDekanovec had no irreligious residents in 2021. In 20 local administrative units with the lowest percentage of irreligious population (less than 0.36%), are mostly municipalities in southwestern and eastern Croatian counties.^[12]

Based on official data from the 2001, 2011 and 2021 censuses, following data on the distribution of religious and irreligious population in Croatia can be ascertained.^[13][14][12]

	2001 census				2011 census						2021 census
County	Religious		Irreligious		Religious			Irreligious			Religious			Irreligious
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	% change	Number	%	% change	Number	%	% change	Number	%	% change
Zagreb	299,123	96.59	10,573	3.41	302,871	95.36	1.25u	14,735	4.64	39.36t	276,266	92.10	8.78i	18,637	6.22	26.48j
Krapina-Zagorje	139,449	97.91	2,983	2.09	129,297	97.29	7.28i	3,595	2.71	20.52s	114,707	95.03	11.28i	4,046	3.35	12.55j
Sisak-Moslavina	174,856	94.32	10,531	5.68	162,831	94.43	6.88j	9,608	5.57	8.76f	128,736	92.20	20.94i	8,381	6.00	12.77i
Karlovac	134,223	94.67	7,564	5.33	121,914	94.58	9.17d	6,985	5.42	7.65g	103,808	92.52	14.85i	6,822	6.08	2.33i
Varaždin	179,444	97.12	5,325	2.88	167,591	95.25	6.61k	8,360	4.75	57.00v	147,227	92.31	12.15i	8,530	5.35	2.03j
Koprivnica-Križevci	120,728	97.00	3,739	3.00	111,157	96.17	7.93g	4,427	3.83	18.40r	95,065	93.91	14.48i	4,817	4.76	8.81j
Bjelovar-Bilogora	126,219	94.84	6,865	5.16	113,595	94.85	10.00c	6,169	5.15	10.14e	94,982	93.23	16.39i	5,747	5.64	6.84i
Primorje-Gorski Kotar	273,410	89.49	32,095	10.51	260,326	87.89	4.79m	35,869	12.11	11.76l	220,425	83.05	15.33i	36,463	13.74	1.66j
Lika-Senj	52,136	97.13	1,541	2.87	49,503	97.20	5.05l	1,424	2.80	7.59h	41,214	96.42	16.74i	1,121	2.62	21.28i
Virovitica-Podravina	89,748	96.10	3,641	3.90	81,683	96.28	8.99e	3,153	3.72	13.40c	67,062	95.31	17.90i	2,599	3.70	17.57i
Požega-Slavonia	82,959	96.65	2,872	3.35	75,678	96.98	8.78f	2,356	3.02	17.97b	60,560	94.51	19.98i	1,626	2.53	30.98i
Brod-Posavina	171,494	97.02	5,271	2.98	153,910	97.06	10.25b	4,665	2.94	11.50d	124,922	95.90	18.83i	3,889	2.99	16.63i
Zadar	155,010	95.66	7,035	4.34	162,045	95.31	4.54v	7,972	4.69	13.32o	149,823	93.77	7.54i	8,099	5.07	1.59j
Osijek-Baranja	316,599	95.79	13,907	4.21	291,534	95.57	7.92h	13,498	4.43	2.94i	240,982	93.39	17.34i	13,851	5.37	2.62j
Šibenik-Knin	108,088	95.75	4,803	4.25	103,789	94.89	3.98p	5,586	5.11	16.30p	88,924	92.26	14.32i	5,851	6.07	4.74j
Vukovar-Srijem	199,023	97.19	5,745	2.81	175,091	97.53	12.02a	4,430	2.47	22.89a	138,305	96.64	21.01i	3,496	2.44	21.08i
Split-Dalmatia	434,740	93.76	28,936	6.24	422,328	92.86	2.86q	32,470	7.14	12.21n	384,429	90.80	8.97i	31,241	7.37	3.79i
Istria	176,886	85.72	29,458	14.28	175,014	84.12	1.06s	33,041	15.88	12.16m	153,409	78.59	12.34i	30,896	15.83	6.49i
Dubrovnik-Neretva	116,886	95.13	5,984	4.87	116,148	94.76	0.63t	6,420	5.24	7.29j	106,964	92.56	7.91i	6,075	5.26	5.37i
Međimurje	113,685	96.00	4,741	4.00	108,549	95.38	4.52o	5,255	4.62	10.84k	96,006	91.22	11.56i	5,562	5.28	5.84j
City of Zagreb	715,972	91.89	63,173	8.11	698,664	88.44	2.42r	91,353	11.56	44.61u	641,242	83.60	8.22i	105,981	13.82	16.01j
Croatia	4,180,678	94.21	256,782	5.79	3,983,518	92.97	4.72n	301,371	7.03	17.36q	3,475,058	89.76	12.76i	313,730	8.11	4.10j

A general scarcity of scientific research on irreligion in Croatia means that there is no way to know what proportions of subgroups such as voters, workers in specific industries, etc. are irreligious.^[15]

International longitudinal researchAufbruch conducted in 1997 in ten countries of Central and Eastern Europe revealed that in Croatia, 31.5% of respondents considered themselves very religious, 42.6% somewhat religious, while the remaining 26% said either that they are not religious, or that they are somewhat or completely irreligious.^[15] On the question which examined the image of God, 25.6% of respondents said they sometimes do not believe in God or do not believe in him at all.

Research of the irreligious' attitudes toward religion and faith, revealed that all respondents differentiate religion and faith, and some church and religion. Among the critics of religion, respondents usually cited control and deceive of the masses, financial interest action, fundamentalism arising from religion, aggressive intrusion into the social sphere, the separation of people and imposing one value system as the only correct one, while those who expressed a positive attitude emphasized that religion plays an important role in society and history.^[15]

• Demographics of Croatia
• Freedom of religion in Croatia
• Religion in Croatia

• Religion in Croatia
• Irreligion by country

• CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list
• CS1 Croatian-language sources (hr)