Christianity is the largest religion inNorway and it has historically been called a Christian country. A majority of the population are members of theChurch of Norway with 64.9% of the population officially belonging to theEvangelical Lutheran Church of Norway in 2021.[1] At numerous times in history, Norway sent more missionaries per capita than any other country. This changed considerably from the 1960s. In 2004, only 12% of the population attended church services each month.[2] The Church of Norway receives a fixed sum from the Government not based on membership numbers. Other religious organisations receive approximately the same amount per member.[3][4]
In 1993, there were 4,981 churches andchapels in Norway.[5]
The conversion of Norway to Christianity began well before 1000 AD. The raids on Ireland, Britain and the Frankish kingdoms had brought the Vikings in touch with Christianity.[6]Haakon the Good of Norway who had grown up in England tried to introduce Christianity in the tenth century, but had met resistance from pagan leaders and soon abandoned the idea.[7][8]
Anglo-Saxon missionaries from England and Germany engaged in converting Norwegians to Christianity, but with limited success. However, they succeeded in convertingOlaf I of Norway to Christianity.[8][7]Olaf II of Norway (later Saint Olaf) had more success in his efforts to convert the population, and he is credited with Christianising Norway.[9]
The Christians in Norway often established churches or other holy sites at places that had previously been sacred under the Norse religion.[10] The spread of conversion can be measured by burial sites as Pagans were buried withgrave goods while Christians were not.[10] Christianity had become well established in Norway by the middle of the 11th century and had become dominant by the middle of the 12th century.Stave churches were built of wood without the use of nails in the 13th century.
| County | Christians[11][12] |
|---|---|
 Sogn og Fjordane | 90.4% |
 Møre og Romsdal | 90.2% |
 Nordland | 89.9% |
 Oppland | 89.6% |
 Finnmark | 89.2% |
 Hedmark | 89.1% |
 Trøndelag | 88.9% |
 Troms | 88.8% |
 Aust-Agder | 87.5% |
 Telemark | 86.6% |
 Vest-Agder | 85.6% |
 Rogaland | 85.4% |
 Vestfold | 84.8% |
 Østfold | 84.6% |
 Norway | 84.2% |
 Buskerud | 83.0% |
 Akershus | 81.4% |
 Oslo | 65.8% |
The above numbers reflect the percentage of the population that are members of a church, typically from being baptized as infants. According to study collected on a sample of 706 Less than half of these define themselves as Christian.[13]
As of the early 21st century, Norway has one of the lowestchurch attendance rates in the world. Below is a table that compares Norway with other governmental divisions in regular church attendance for the early 21st century (2004–2006). In contrast to 250,000 regular churchgoers in the whole of Norway in 2004, 43,500 attendLakewood Church in the United States each week, and 23,000 attendHillsong Church in Australia each week.
TheU.S. state ofAlabama has a population roughly equal to that of Norway, but church attendance inAlabama is as much as 11 times higher than in Norway.
| Country / State | Regular church attendance (%) | Regular church attendance (number) |
|---|---|---|
 Alabama | 58%[14] | 2,700,000 |
 Poland | 56.7%[15] | 21,600,000 |
 Texas | 49%[14] | 12,140,000 |
 United States average | 42%[14] | 120,000,000 |
 California | 32%[14] | 11,830,000 |
 Canada | 25% | 7,800,000 |
 Vermont | 24%[14] | 140,000 |
 France | 15% | 9,800,000 |
 United Kingdom | 10%[16] | 6,000,000 |
 Australia | 7.5%[17] | 1,500,000 |
| Norway | 5%[18] | 250,000 |
| Religious Affiliation/Identification | 1982 | 1990 | 1996 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent belonging to a religious denomination | 95.9% | 90.2% | 90.7% | – |
| Percent identifying as a religious person | 48% | 47.5% | 46.9% | 41.3% |
| Percent raised religious | – | 45.7% | 41.4% | – |
| Religious Behaviors | 1982 | 1990 | 1996 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent attending religious services at least once a month | 15.4% | 12.7% | 12.5% | 10.8% |
| Percent that meditate or pray | 61.6% | 64.4% | – | 33.2% |
| Percent active in a church or religious organization | – | – | 8.3% | 8.3% |
| Religious Beliefs | 1982 | 1990 | 1996 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent believing in God | 75.5% | 65% | 68.8% | – |
| Percent believing in heaven | 51.9% | 43.8% | 46.7% | – |
| Percent believing in hell | 23.5% | 19.2% | 19.7% | – |
| Percent believing in life after death | 50.7% | 44.7% | 47.3% | – |
| Percent believing that there are clear guidelines on good and evil | 31.4% | 31.6% | 29.1% | – |
| Percent believing that politicians who do not believe in God are unfit for public office | – | – | – | 3.8% |
| Percent believing that religious leaders should not influence people's vote | – | – | – | 8.9% |
| Percent believing that things would be better if there are more people with strong religious beliefs | – | – | – | 6.2% |
| Percent believing church gives answers to people's spiritual needs | 64.3% | 55% | – | 48.2% |
| Percent believing church gives answers on family life problems | 36.5% | 29.1% | – | 16.1% |
| Percent believing churches give answers to moral problems | 47.5% | 40.9% | – | 28.7% |
| Percent believing churches give answers to social problems | – | 18.5% | – | 11.7% |
| Percent believing that religious leaders should influence the government | – | – | – | 79.4% |
| Percent believing that people have a soul | 59% | 54.4% | 59.6% | – |
| Percent believing in the concept of sin | 59.2% | 44.2% | 45.4% | – |
| Percent believing religious services are important for deaths | – | 81.1% | – | – |
| Percent believing religious services are important for births | – | 66.3% | – | – |
| Percent believing religious services are important for marriages | – | 70.4% | – | – |
| Percent believing in a personal God | 39.2% | 29.8% | – | – |
| Percent believing in re-incarnation | 38.4% | 15.2% | – | – |
| Percent believing in the devil's existence | 30.2% | 24% | 28% | – |
| Percent that think that religious faith is an important quality in children | – | – | – | 8.6% |
| Percent that agree: We depend too much on science and not enough on faith | – | – | – | 25.8% |
| Percent that do not trust people of other religions | – | – | – | 20.4% |
| Percent that often think about meaning and purpose of life | – | – | – | 20.2% |
| Religious Experiences | 1982 | 1990 | 1996 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent finding comfort and strength from religion | 48.5% | 35.6% | 39.5% | – |
| Attitudes | 1982 | 1990 | 1996 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent considering religion important | – | 40.3% | 38.2% | 32.8% |
| Percent considering that God is not at all important in their life | 19.6% | 24.8% | 22.1% | 27.9% |
| Percent confident in religious organizations | 49.6% | 44.6% | 53.5% | 50.5% |
| Born again Christian[19] | 1997 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|
| Percent who reportBorn-again Christian | 19% | 26% |
| People who reportBorn-again Christian | 835,000 | 1,263,000 |
| Religion (on 31 December 2019)[1][20] | Members | Percent | Growth (2014–2019) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christianity | 4,059,366 | 75.63% | -2.0% |
| Church of Norway | 3,686,715 | 68.68% | −4.1% |
| Catholic Church | 165,254[21] | 3.08% | 72.8% |
| Pentecostal congregations | 40,725 | 0.76% | 4.0% |
| Eastern Orthodoxy andOriental Orthodoxy | 28,544 | 0.53% | 63.3% |
| Evangelical Lutheran Free Church | 19,313 | 0.36% | −1.0% |
| Jehovah's Witnesses | 12,661 | 0.24% | 2.9% |
| Baptists | 10,823 | 0.20% | 5.1% |
| The Methodist Church in Norway | 10,000 | 0.19% | −5.4% |
| Other Christianity | 85,331 | 1.59% | −6.8% |
| Total[22] | 5,367,850 | 100.0% | 3.9% |
| Denomination | Percent[23] |
|---|---|
| Christian | 92.0% |
| Agnostic | 3.5% |
| Muslim | 2.8% |
| Buddhist | 0.7% |
| Atheist | 0.6% |
| Baháʼí | 0.1% |
| Neo-pagan | 0.1% |
| Denomination | Percent[citation needed] |
|---|---|
| Christianity | 93.7% |
| Protestant | 89.4% |
| Other Christian | 2.0% |
| Independent | 1.2% |
| Catholic | 0.8% |
| Non-religious | 5.0% |
| Islam | 1.0% |
| Buddhism | 0.2% |
TheChurch of Norway (Den norske kirke inBokmål orDen norske kyrkja inNynorsk) is the state church of Norway. The church confesses theLutheran Christian faith. It has as its foundation the ChristianBible, theApostles' Creed,Nicene Creed,Athanasian Creed,Luther's Small Catechism and theAugsburg Confession. The Church is a member of thePorvoo Communion with 12 other churches, among them the Anglican Churches of Europe. It has also signed some other ecumenical texts, including theJoint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Catholic Church and theJoint statement on the occasion of the Joint Catholic-Lutheran Commemoration of the Reformation in the city ofLund,Sweden in 2016.
The constitutional head of the Church is theKing of Norway, who is obliged to profess the Lutheran faith. The Church of Norway is subject to legislation, including its budgets, passed by the Norwegian parliament, theStorting, and its central administrative functions are carried out by theRoyal Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs.
The Church has a congregational and episcopal structure, with 1,284 parishes, 106 deaneries and 11 dioceses, namely:
| As of 2008[24] | Percent | |
|---|---|---|
| Members | 3,874,823 | 81.8% |
| Participation in worship services, Sundays and holidays | 5,069,341 | |
| Baptism | 42,599 | |
| Confirmation | 41,655 | |
| Consecration | 10,536 | |
| Funeral | 38,832 |
The following membership numbers are from Statistics Norway's data from 2016 to 2020:[25]
TheEvangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway (Den Evangelisk Lutherske frikyrkja i Noreg in Norwegian) or the Free Church as it is commonly known, is a nationwideLutheranfree church in Norway consisting of 81 congregations with 19,313 members in 2020, up from 18,908 in 2016.[26] It was founded in 1877 inMoss. It should not be confused with the Church of Norway, though both churches are members of theLutheran World Federation. The Free Church is financially independent.
13,108 members in 2020, down from 21,689 in 2016.
11,223 members in 2020, up from 10,598 in 2016.
(previously known asDen Kristelige Menighet, 'the Christian Church')
8,726 members in 2020, up from 8,177 in 2016.
2,180 members in 2020, down from 4,117 in 2016.
3,127 members in 2020, down from 3,318 in 2016.
2,968 members in 2020, down from 3,001 in 2016.
3,139 members in 2020, down from 3,177 in 2016.
6,008 members in 2020, down from 6,830 in 2016.
2,428 members in 2020, down from 2,550 in 2016.
40,725 members in 2020, up from 39,431 in 2016.
10,823 in 2020, up from 10,367 in 2016.
4,642 in 2020, down from 4,778 in 2016.
10,000 in 2020, down from 10,531 in 2016.
The Catholic Church in Norway is part of the worldwideCatholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of thePope and theCuria in Rome. Per 1 January 2020 the church had 165,254 registered members.[25] The number has more than doubled since 2010 from approximately 67,000 members, mainly due to high immigration.[27] There may be approximately 170,000–200,000 people of Catholic background in the country, most of them immigrants.[28][needs update]
The country is divided into three Church districts – theDiocese of Oslo and theprelatures ofTrondheim andTromsø and 32 parishes. The Bishop of Oslo participates in theScandinavian Bishops Conference. The Catholic Church in Norway is as old as the kingdom itself, dating from approximately 900 A.D., with the first Christian monarchs,Haakon I from 934.
At first, the bulk of Catholic immigrants came from Germany, the Netherlands, and France. Immigration from Chile, the Philippines, and from a wide range of other countries began in the 1970s. This development has further increased in the last few years with economic immigrants from Poland and Lithuania. Ethnic Norwegian Catholics are now greatly outnumbered by the immigrants, although the former tend to be far more observant and conservative, being aself-selected group largely of ex-Lutheran converts.[citation needed]
28,544 in 2020, up from 20,202 in 2016. The Orthodox Church has experienced a 235% increase in membership from 2010 to 2020.[27]
Jehovah's Witnesses is the largestnontrinitarian religious organization in Norway, with a membership of 12,661 in 2020, up from 12,413 in 2016.[25] A branch office is located inYtre Enebakk. In 2022, the group lost its legal status as a religion over their exclusionary policies, although they are not banned within Norway.[29] This legal status was restored by theBorgarting Court of Appeal in March 2025.[30]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Norwegian:Jesu Kristi kirke av siste dagers hellige) is a restorationist free church. There are about 4,500 members in Norway, with history going back to 1851. There are 19 congregations, calledwards andbranches in Norway.[31] Atemple, to be built in Oslo, was announced on 4 April 2021 bychurch presidentRussell M. Nelson.[32][33]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)