National / Regional Profiles
Included Nations/Regions: Nicaragua [x], Central America [x], The World [x]
Religion and State (RAS) Indexes1
Religion Indexes (Nicaragua)
|
State Funding of Religion Summary categories: None (0/3), Low (1/3), Medium (2/3), High (3/3) Ranking: 46/253 |
Societal Discrimination of Minority Religions Summary categories: None (0/3), Low (1/3), Medium (2/3), High (3/3) Ranking: 148/253 |
State Regulation of Majority or All Religions Summary categories: None (0/3), Low (1/3), Medium (2/3), High (3/3) Ranking: 79/253 |
State Discrimination of Minority Religions Summary categories: None (0/3), Low (1/3), Medium (2/3), High (3/3) Ranking: 109/253 |
Nicaragua: Major World Religions (1900 - 2050) (World Religion Database, 2020)2
The following groups with less than 1% of the population were hidden from this graph: Baha'is, Buddhists, Chinese folk-religionists, Ethnic religionists, Jews, Muslims, New religionists.
Nicaragua: Largest Religious Groups (1900 - 2050) (World Religion Database, 2020)2
The following groups with less than 1% of the population were hidden from this graph: Atheists, doubly-affiliated, Mahayanists, Shias, Sunnis, unaffiliated Christians.
Religious Adherents (World Religion Database 2020)2
| Religion | Nicaragua [x] |
Central America [x] |
The World [x] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baha'is | 0.19% | 0.12% | 0.11% |
| Buddhists | 0.12% | 0.05% | 6.83% |
| --Mahayanists | 0.12% | 0.05% | 4.89% |
| --Theravadins | --- | --- | 1.72% |
| --Lamaists | --- | --- | 0.23% |
| Chinese folk-religionists | 0.05% | 0.03% | 5.98% |
| Christians | 95.05% | 95.72% | 32.16% |
| --unaffiliated Christians | 0.58% | 1.73% | 1.46% |
| --Orthodox | --- | 0.19% | 3.75% |
| --Catholics | 77.74% | 84.36% | 15.90% |
| --Protestants | 21.31% | 7.73% | 7.51% |
| --Independents | 6.94% | 7.35% | 5.00% |
| Daoists | --- | --- | 0.11% |
| Confucianists | --- | --- | 0.11% |
| Ethnic religionists | 0.48% | 0.96% | 3.65% |
| Hindus | --- | 0.01% | 13.58% |
| --Vaishnavites | --- | 0.00% | 5.15% |
| --Shaivites | --- | 0.00% | 4.86% |
| --Saktists | --- | 0.00% | 3.57% |
| Jains | --- | --- | 0.08% |
| Jews | 0.00% | 0.03% | 0.19% |
| Muslims | 0.02% | 0.10% | 24.20% |
| --Sunnis | 0.01% | 0.07% | 21.56% |
| --Shias | 0.00% | 0.02% | 2.44% |
| --Islamic schismatics | --- | 0.00% | 0.21% |
| New religionists | 0.02% | 0.03% | 0.85% |
| Shintoists | --- | --- | 0.04% |
| Sikhs | --- | 0.00% | 0.34% |
| Spiritists | 1.46% | 0.14% | 0.19% |
| Zoroastrians | --- | --- | 0.00% |
| Non-Religious | 2.61% | 2.82% | 11.57% |
| --Agnostics | 2.57% | 2.66% | 9.65% |
| --Atheists | 0.05% | 0.16% | 1.92% |
Religious demographics (Nicaragua)3
The country has an area of 49,998 square miles and a population of 5.7 million. More than 80 percent of the population belongs to Christian groups. Roman Catholicism remains the dominant religion. 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 including Assembly of God, Pentecostal, Mennonite, and Baptist. Groups that constitute less than 5 percent include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the Moravian Church, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Both Catholic and evangelical leaders view the census results as inaccurate; according to their own surveys Catholics constitute approximately 75 percent of the population and evangelicals 30 percent. The most recent 2008 public opinion survey from the private polling firm M&R indicates that 58 percent are Catholic and 28 percent evangelical. The Assembly of God claims to be the largest evangelical denomination with more than 860 churches and 200,000 baptized members.
Non-Christian communities are few and small. Although the Jewish community numbers only 40 permanent members (including expatriates), visitors often join them for holy days such as Passover. Although small in number, the Jewish community is heterogeneous and includes members from a variety of countries of origin. It does not have an ordained rabbi or synagogue, primarily due to lack of resources. During a special ceremony in December 2007, the community celebrated the return of the Torah which had been absent since the Sandinista Revolution in 1979.
There are approximately 1,200 to 1,500 Muslims, mostly Sunnis, who are resident aliens or naturalized citizens from the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Libya, and Iran. The Islamic Cultural Center in Managua serves as the primary prayer center for Muslims in the city, with approximately 320 men attending regularly, including Muslims from Granada, Masaya, Leon, and Chinandega. The Muslim community reportedly had plans to build a mosque in Managua; Granada, Masaya, and Leon have smaller prayer centers in homes. In November 2007 a new Sunni leader trained in Egypt was appointed to lead the Managua prayer center.
Small religious groups include Baha'is, the Church of Scientology, and Buddhists. Immigrant groups include Palestinian Christians whose ancestors came to Central America in the early 1900s, and Chinese, many of whom arrived as Christians or converted to Christianity. Some immigrant communities, including South Koreans, formed their own Protestant churches. In January 2008 the first native-born Buddhist nun was announced; a Buddhist Center has existed in the country since 2000.
There are no longer any pre-Columbian religions known to be actively practiced in the country. Some Moravian churches along the Atlantic Coast continued to allow indigenous Amerindian spiritual expression, often through music. The Catholic Church frequently incorporated syncretic elements.
Moravian, Episcopalian, Catholic, and Baptist communities are the main traditional religious groups associated with the Atlantic coast, while Catholic and evangelical Protestant churches dominate the Pacific and central regions where the majority of the population resides. There is a strong correlation between ethnicity and religion along the Atlantic Coast, which has a higher concentration of indigenous and Afro-Caribbean populations. Amerindians and Creoles, for example, are more likely to belong to the Moravian or Episcopalian Churches; however, both churches report losing some adherents to the growing evangelical movement. Some evangelical churches enjoy a strong presence in the remote towns of the central south Atlantic region. Smaller evangelical churches increased in rural areas of the interior and where the Catholic Church was not present.
Summary Information |
Nicaragua [x] |
Central America [x] |
The World [x] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Central America | The World | -- |
| Total Population4 | 6,082,032 | 172,740,074 | 7,335,774,068 |
| Area in square miles | 50,336 | 959,946 | 196,939,900 |
| Life Expectancy from birth, in years5 | 75.0 | 74.9 | 71.9 |
| Gross National Income per capita, in current international dollars5 | 5,390.0 | 11,031.3 | 16,101.0 |
| Description of Polity Score6 | (strongly democratic) | -- | -- |
| Judicial Independence Composite Score, as average of scores for higher and lower courts7 | -2.1 | 0.3 | 0.8 |
| Official Religion(s)8 | Catholicism | -- | -- |
Nicaragua - Google Map
Religion and the State
Religion and State Collection (2014) |
Nicaragua [x] |
|---|---|
| Is proselytizing Legal?1 | Yes |
| Is religious registration someties denied?1 | There is no registration requirement |
| What are the consequences of registration?1 | Groups are officially required to register but groups which do not are not in any way restricted, except in that they may be denied status as a legal entity. |
| Official Support: The formal relationship between religion and state.1 | Multi-Tiered Preferences 1 |
| The extent to which religious education is mandatory in public schools.1 | Mandatory for all; the course must be in religion. |
| The extent to which funding is exclusive to one or a few religions.1 | Government funding of religion goes to only some religions for which there are a substantial number of adherents in the country. |
| The extent to which there are religious requirements and oaths for holding office.1 | There are no religious requirements or oaths necessary in order to hold office. |
Constitutional Features [ View Excerpts]
Features of Constitution |
Nicaragua [x] |
|---|---|
| Is there a constitution?9 | Yes |
| Does the constitution state an official religion?10 | unclear [ Articles 5, 14 ] |
| Does the constitution provide for freedom of religion?10 | yes [ Articles 29, 69 ] |
| Does the constitution protect religious equality/non-discrimination?10 | yes [ Article 27 ] |
Constitution |
Nicaragua [x] |
|---|---|
| Constitution Year10 | 1986 |
| Last Amended10 | 2014 |
| Source10 | World Constitutions Illustrated |
| Translation10 | Source is an English translation, edited by ARDA staff. |
| Current as of10 | July 17, 2018 |
Socio-Economic Measures
Education |
Nicaragua [x] |
Central America [x] |
The World [x] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult Literacy Rate, in percentage of adult population12 | 82.8 | 92.4 | 86.2 |
| Net Primary School Enrollment Rate, in percentage of population of official school age5 | 97.0 | 93.5 | 89.6 |
| Net Secondary School Enrollment Rate, in percentage of population of official school age5 | 48.9 | 63.7 | 65.1 |
Economic Measures |
Nicaragua [x] |
Central America [x] |
The World [x] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Domestic Product, in billions of current U.S. Dollars5 | 13.2 | 1,291.6 | 75,845.1 |
| Imports, in million current-year U.S. dollars13 | 7,531.3 | 512,030.7 | 20,150,355.0 |
| Exports, in million current-year U.S. dollars13 | 5,165.7 | 477,553.4 | 20,790,015.7 |
| Economic Freedom Index, scaled from 0 min to 100 max14 | 59.2 | 62.3 | 62.9 |
| Human Development Index15 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| 2013 Gender Inequality Index (GII)16 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Gross National Income per capita, in current international dollars5 | 5,390.0 | 11,031.3 | 16,101.0 |
Military Measures |
Nicaragua [x] |
Central America [x] |
The World [x] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composite Index of National Capability, in fraction of 117 | 0.0003474 | 0.002215513 | 0.005162584 |
| 2012 Military expenditure (% of GDP)5 | 0.7 | 0.6 | -- |
Demographic and Health Measures |
Nicaragua [x] |
Central America [x] |
The World [x] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Population4 | 6,082,032 | 172,740,074 | 7,335,774,068 |
| Life Expectancy from birth, in years5 | 75.0 | 74.9 | 71.9 |
| 2012 Net Migration Rate (migrants per 1,000 population)5 | -120.0 | -1,569.8 | -- |
| Urban Percentage of Total Population13 | 59.1 | 74.2 | 54.3 |
| Urban Population Growth, by percentage13 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 2.0 |
| Fertility Rate, in total births per woman13 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.5 |
| Infant Mortality Rate, in deaths per 1000 live births13 | 16.8 | 14.3 | 30.5 |
| HIV Prevalence, in percentage of population ages 15-49 with HIV13 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.8 |
Other Measures on Religion, State, and Society
Constitution Clauses Related to Religion
Constitution Excerpts (clauses that reference religion) (Nicaragua)10
Preamble
... In the Name ... of those Christians who from their faith in GOD have participated in and inserted themselves into the struggle ...
Article 5
... the Christian values ... are principles of the Nicaraguan nation.
...
Christian values assure the love for [one's] fellow humans [prójimo], the reconciliation between brothers of the Nicaraguan family, the respect for the individual diversity without any discrimination, the respect for and equality of rights of the persons with disabilities and the preferential option for the poor.
...
... any type [tipo] of ... religious aggression ... is forbidden and proscribed.
Article 14.
The State has no official religion.
Article 27.
All persons are equal before the law and have right to equal protection. There will be no discrimination for reasons of ... religion ...
Article 29.
Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, of thought and to profess or not [to profess] a religion. No one may be the object of coercive measures that may diminish these rights[,] or to be obligated to declare their [su] creed, ideology or belief.
Article 49.
In Nicaragua ... religious [persons] ... have the right to form organizations, without any discrimination, with the objective of achieving the realization of their aspirations according to their own interests, and to participate in the construction of a new society.
Article 69.
All persons, individually or collectively, have the right to manifest their religious beliefs in private or in public, through worship [culto], practices and its teaching.
No one may evade the observance of the laws, or impede others from the exercise of their rights and fulfillment of their duties, [by] invoking religious beliefs or provisions.
Article 82.
The workers have the right to conditions of work that assure to them[,] especially:
(1) Equal pay [salario] for equal work in identical conditions, adequate to their social responsibility, without discrimination for ... religious ... reasons, that assures to them a wellbeing compatible with human dignity.
Article 124.
Education in Nicaragua is secular. The State recognizes the right of private centers dedicated to teaching[,] and of religious orientation, to teach [impartir] religion as an extracurricular matter.
Article 134.
...
(2) [The following] may not be candidates for proprietary [proprietarios] or substitute Deputies:
...
(b) The ministers of any religious belief, save having renounced its exercise at least twelve months prior to the election.
Article 147.
...
[The following] may not be a candidate for President or Vice President of the Republic:
...
(c) The ministers of any religious faith, except when they have renounced its exercise at least twelve months prior to the election.
Article 180
[Pertaining to Communities of the Caribbean Coast]
...
[The State] guarantees the preservation of their cultures and languages, religions and customs.
Variable Details
Sources
1 The Religion and State (RAS) Project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel and is directed by Jonathan Fox. Round 3 of the RAS includes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more as well as a sampling of smaller states and offers annual measures from 1990 to 2014. The methods used for conducting the RAS3 collection and the complete codebook can be reviewed online. Or, the codebook and data file can be downloaded free of charge here. For details on how the RAS indexes reported on the ARDA’s National Profiles were coded, constructed, and placed into categories, click here.2 Todd M. Johnson and Brian J. Grim, eds. World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2022).
3 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.
4 The Religious Characteristics of States Dataset Project: Demographics reports the estimates of religious demographics, both country by country and region by region. The RCS was created to fulfill the unmet need for a dataset on the religious dimensions of countries of the world, with the state-year as the unit of observation. It estimates populations and percentages of adherents of 100 religious denominations including second level subdivision within Christianity and Islam. The RCS Data Project would like to acknowledge, recognize, and express our deepest gratitude for the significant contributions of Todd M. Johnson the co-principal investigator of the World Religion Database.
5 Relying on agencies from each country, as well as a synthesis of data from United Nations divisions, Eurostate Demographic statistics, the U.S. Census international database, and its own data collection, the World Bank's Open Data site offers free and open access to data about development in countries around the globe.
6 The Center for Systemic Peace (CSP) is engaged in innovative research on the problem of political violence within the structural context of the dynamic global system. The Center supports scientific research and quantitative analysis in many issue areas related to the fundamental problems of violence in both human relations and societal-systemic development processes. The Center continually monitors political behavior in each of the world's major states and reports on emerging issues and persisting conditions related to the problems of political violence and "state failure." A dataset with these and other international measures can be downloaded from here. Used with permission. *Note: Polity Scores range from -10 to 10 and include the following categories: -10 to -9: strongly autocratic, -8 to -7 autocratic, -6 to -4 weakly autocratic, -3 to +3 anocratic, +4 to +6 weakly democratic, +7 to +8 democratic, +9 to +10 strongly democratic.
7 Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is a new approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. V-Dem provides a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between seven high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, egalitarian, majoritarian, and consensual, and collects data to measure these principles. A dataset with these and other international measures can be downloaded from here. Used with permission.
8 The Religious Characteristics of States Dataset Project: Government Religious Preference (GRP) measures government-level favoritism toward, and disfavor against, 30 religious denominations. A series of ordered categorical variables index the state's institutional favoritism in 28 different ways. The variables are combined to form five composite indices for five broad components of state-religion: official status, religious education, financial support, regulatory burdens, and freedom of practice. The five components' composites in turn are further combined into a single composite score, the GRP score. The RCS Data Project would like to acknowledge, recognize, and express our deepest gratitude for the significant contributions of Todd M. Johnson, the principal investigator of the World Christian Database, the co-principal investigator of the World Religion Database, and co-author of the World Christian Encyclopedia series.
9 Data under the "Features of Constitution" heading are drawn from coding of the U.S. State Department's 2008 International Religious Freedom Reports conducted by researchers at the Association of Religion Data Archives. The article by Brian Grim and Roger Finke describes the coding of the International Religious Freedom reports. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. Used with permission.
10 Text from country constitutions was copied from primary documents obtained online using a variety of sources, including the Constitute Project, World Constitutions Illustrated, and government sources. When the text was in a language other than English, it was translated to English by ARDA staff or with web-based translation utilities such as Google Translate. Emphases were added to the text by ARDA staff to differentiate religious content from non-religious content. Text is current to the date listed in the "Current as of" field shown above. Please contact us at
11 Freedom House is an independent non-governmental organization that offers measures of the extent to which governments are accountable to their own people; the rule of law prevails; and freedoms of expression, association, belief and respect for the rights of minorities and women are guaranteed. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. Used with permission.
12 The CIA's World Factbook was created as an annual summary and update to the now defunct National Intelligence Survey (NIS) studies. The first classified Factbook was published in August 1962, and the first unclassified version was published in June 1971. The NIS program was terminated in 1973 except for the Factbook, map, and gazetteer components. The 1975 Factbook was the first to be made available to the public with sales through the US Government Printing Office (GPO). The year 2010 marks the 67th year of the World Factbook and its predecessor programs. The maps and flags are also from the World Factbook, which is an open source.
13 Relying on agencies from each country, as well as a synthesis of data from United Nations divisions, Eurostate Demographic statistics, the U.S. Census international database, and its own data collection, the World Bank's Open Data site offers free and open access to data about development in countries around the globe.
14 The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom is a systematic, empirical measurement of economic freedom in countries throughout the world. A set of objective economic criteria are used to study and grade various countries for the annual publication of the Index of Economic Freedom. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. Used with permission.
15 The United Nations Human Development Reports provide data and statistical analysis in various areas of human development. The Human Development Report (HDR) presents two types of statistics: the human development indicator tables, which provide a global assessment of country achievements in different areas of human development, and thematic statistical analysis. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. Used with permission.
16 The 2013 Gender Inequality Index is a composite measure reflecting inequality in achievements between women and men in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labor market. It varies between zero (when women and men fare equally) and one (when men or women fare poorly compared to the other in all dimensions). The health dimension is measured by two indicators: maternal mortality ratio and the adolescent fertility rate. The empowerment dimension is also measured by two indicators: the share of parliamentary seats held by each sex and by secondary and higher education attainment levels. The labor dimension is measured by women’s participation in the work force. Source: The United Nations Human Development Reports provide data and statistical analysis in various areas of human development. The Human Development Report (HDR) presents two types of statistics: the human development indicator tables, which provide a global assessment of country achievements in different areas of human development, and thematic statistical analysis. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. Used with permission.
17 Military data is drawn from the National Material Capabilities (v4.0) dataset, which is a component of and hosted by the Correlates of War Project. The Correlates of War Project seeks to facilitate the collection, dissemination, and use of accurate and reliable quantitative data in international relations. Correlates of War data may be accessed through the above link. Used with permission.
18 The article by Brian Grim and Roger Finke describes the coding of the U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom reports. The 2003, 2005, and 2008 reports were coded by researchers at the Association of Religion Data Archives. The GRI, GFI and SRI values reported on the National Profiles are averages from the 2003, 2005, and 2008 International Religious Freedom reports, while the Religious Persecution measure is an average from the 2005 and 2008 reports. All other measures derived from the International Religious Freedom reports were coded from the reports 2008. A data file with all of the 2008 coding, as well as data files with other cross national collections are available for preview and download from the data archive on this site. Used with permission.
19 The Cingranelli-Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Dataset contains standards-based quantitative information on government respect for 15 internationally recognized human rights for 202 countries, annually from 1981-2011. It is designed for use by scholars and students who seek to test theories about the causes and consequences of human rights violations, as well as policy makers and analysts who seek to estimate the human rights effects of a wide variety of institutional changes and public policies including democratization, economic aid, military aid, structural adjustment, and humanitarian intervention. The full CIRI Human Rights Dataset can be accessed through the above link. Used with permission.
