- Summary
- Adherents
- Religious Freedom
- Socio-economic
- Public Opinion
Religious Adherents1 |
Nicaragua | Central America | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baha'i | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.1% |
| Buddhist | 0.1% | 0.1% | 5.8% |
| Chinese Universalist | 0.0% | 0.1% | 5.8% |
| Christian | 96.2% | 96.2% | 33.3% |
| Confucianist | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| Ethnoreligionist | 0.5% | 0.6% | 4.0% |
| Hindu | 0.0% | 0.0% | 13.6% |
| Jain | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| Jewish | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Muslim | 0.0% | 0.4% | 20.8% |
| Shintoist | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Sikh | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| Spiritist | 1.5% | 0.5% | 0.2% |
| Taoist | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| Zoroastrian | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Other Religions | 0.0% | 0.1% | 1.6% |
| Neo-religions | 0.0% | 0.1% | -- |
| Non-religious | 1.5% | 1.3% | 11.7% |
| Atheist | 0.0% | 0.3% | 2.3% |
Religious Demography
The country has an area of 49,998 square miles and a population of 5.5 million. More than 80 percent of the population belongs to Christian groups. According to a 2005 census conducted by the governmental Nicaraguan Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), 58.5 percent of the population is Roman Catholic and 21.6 percent is evangelical Protestant. Two percent is associated with other unspecified religious groups, 1.6 percent belongs to the Moravian Church, less than 1 percent is associated with the Jehovah's Witnesses, and 15.7 percent profess no religious affiliation or are atheists. The evangelicals include Assembly of God, Pentecostal, Mennonite, Baptist, and other small denominations. A June 2007 poll shows a similar breakdown. Both Catholic and evangelical leaders regarded the census results as biased. Survey methodology was questioned as well as the counting of those who converted from Catholicism to an evangelical denomination but later returned to Catholicism. In addition some religious groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), were sometimes incorrectly categorized as "evangelical." According to the Nicaraguan Institute of Evangelicals, their numbers are actually lower than the surveys suggested, between 15 and 18 percent of the population, a result of the methodological problems. Non-Christian communities are few and small. The Jewish community counts fewer than 50 persons (including expatriates). They gather for religious holidays and Sabbath dinners but do not have an ordained rabbi or a synagogue. According to community members, the last synagogue was firebombed by a Sandinista street mob in 1978. There are approximately 1,200 to 1,500 Muslims, mostly Sunnis who are resident aliens or naturalized citizens from Palestine, Libya, and Iran. Muslims worship freely. The Islamic Cultural Center in Managua serves as the primary prayer center for Muslims in the city, with approximately 320 men attending on a regular basis. Muslims from Granada, Masaya, Leon, and Chinandega also travel to the Managua prayer center on Fridays for prayers. Granada, Masaya, and Leon have smaller prayer centers in the homes of prominent local Muslims. In May 2007 the Sunni leader of the Managua prayer center was dismissed, due to the increase in Iranian influence in the Muslim community and was to be replaced by a Shi'a religious leader. By the end of the reporting period the Shi'a leader had not been identified. The Muslim community reportedly had plans to build a mosque in Managua. Minority religious groups include Baha'is and the Church of Scientology. Immigrant groups include Palestinian Christians whose ancestors came to Central America in the early 1900s, and Chinese, many of whom arrived as Christians or intermarried with citizens and converted to Christianity. Some immigrant communities, including South Koreans, formed their own Protestant churches without government interference. There were no longer any pre-Columbian religions in the country, although there was a "freedom movement" within some Moravian churches to allow indigenous Amerindian spiritual expression, often through music. The Catholic Church frequently incorporated syncretic elements and did not criticize pre-Colombian aspects of Christian religious festivals. Moravian, Episcopal, and Anglican communities are concentrated on the Atlantic coast, while Catholic and evangelical churches dominate the Pacific and central regions. There is a strong correlation between ethnicity and religion. Creoles and Amerindians, who generally live along the Atlantic coast, are more likely to belong to the Moravian or Episcopal Churches. Some evangelical churches have a strong presence in the remote towns of the central south Atlantic region. Evangelicals tended to attract poor and unemployed persons with lower levels of education living in mostly rural and remote areas. Their numbers were increasing in rural areas of the interior and areas where the Catholic Church was not present. The evangelical churches operated three private universities without interference from the Government. The Assemblies of God purported to be the largest evangelical denomination in the country. According to church leaders, there were more than 860 churches and 200,000 baptized members. Anecdotal evidence suggests higher church attendance rates in evangelical churches than in Catholic and traditional Protestant churches. According to a Catholic official, while the Catholic Church was losing members to the evangelical movement, many converts eventually returned to the Catholic Church. Missionaries are present.2
Sources
Note: All country histories and flags were obtained from The World Factbook, 2008.
1. The World Christian Database (WCD) is based on the 2600-page award-winning World Christian Encyclopedia and World Christian Trends, first published in 1982 and revised in 2001. This extensive work on World religion is now completely updated and integrated into the WCD online database. Designed for both the casual user and research scholar, information is readily available on religious activities, growth rates, religious literature, worker activity, and demographic statistics. Additional secular data is incorporated on population, health, education, and communications. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. Used with permission.
2. The U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom report is submitted to Congress annually by the Department of State in compliance with Section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. This report supplements the most recent Human Rights Reports by providing additional detailed information with respect to matters involving international religious freedom. It includes individual country chapters on the status of religious freedom worldwide. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. These State Department reports are open source.
