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National / Regional Profiles

Included Nations/Regions: Congo, Democratic Republic of the [x], Middle Africa [x], The World [x]


Religion and State (RAS) Indexes1

Religion Indexes (Congo, Democratic Republic of the)

State Funding of Religion
Summary categories: None (0/3), Low (1/3), Medium (2/3), High (3/3)

Ranking: 128/253
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: 133/253
State Discrimination of Minority Religions
Summary categories: None (0/3), Low (1/3), Medium (2/3), High (3/3)

Ranking: 145/253
For details on how these indexes were constructed, click here

Congo, Democratic Republic of the: 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, Hindus, Jews, New religionists, Nonreligious.


Congo, Democratic Republic of the: 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: Agnostics, Atheists, doubly-affiliated, Mahayanists, Orthodox, Saktists, Shaivites, Shias, unaffiliated Christians, Vaishnavites.


Religious Adherents (World Religion Database 2020)2

Religion Congo, Democratic Republic of the
[x]
Middle Africa
[x]
The World
[x]
Baha'is 0.43% 0.36% 0.11%
Buddhists 0.01% 0.01% 6.83%
--Mahayanists 0.01% 0.01% 4.89%
--Theravadins --- --- 1.72%
--Lamaists --- --- 0.23%
Chinese folk-religionists --- 0.00% 5.98%
Christians 94.98% 82.96% 32.16%
--unaffiliated Christians 0.56% 3.37% 1.46%
--Orthodox 0.04% 0.02% 3.75%
--Catholics 54.93% 46.78% 15.90%
--Protestants 18.60% 19.32% 7.51%
--Independents 26.72% 16.74% 5.00%
Daoists --- --- 0.11%
Confucianists --- --- 0.11%
Ethnic religionists 2.51% 6.23% 3.65%
Hindus 0.15% 0.08% 13.58%
--Vaishnavites 0.04% 0.02% 5.15%
--Shaivites 0.06% 0.03% 4.86%
--Saktists 0.06% 0.03% 3.57%
Jains --- --- 0.08%
Jews 0.00% 0.00% 0.19%
Muslims 1.47% 9.64% 24.20%
--Sunnis 1.41% 9.60% 21.56%
--Shias 0.07% 0.03% 2.44%
--Islamic schismatics --- 0.00% 0.21%
New religionists 0.01% 0.03% 0.85%
Shintoists --- --- 0.04%
Sikhs --- --- 0.34%
Spiritists --- --- 0.19%
Zoroastrians --- --- 0.00%
Non-Religious 0.45% 0.69% 11.57%
--Agnostics 0.43% 0.60% 9.65%
--Atheists 0.02% 0.09% 1.92%

Religious demographics (Congo, Democratic Republic of the)3

The country has an area of 905,000 square miles and a population of 66.5 million. Approximately 55 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, 30 percent is main line Protestant, and less than 5 percent each is Kimbanguiste or Muslim. The remainder generally practices traditional indigenous religious beliefs. Other religious groups include Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and Orthodox Christians.

Most religious groups are scattered throughout the country and are widely represented in cities and large towns. Muslims are mainly concentrated in the provinces of Maniema, Orientale, and Kinshasa. Members of the ethnically based spiritual and political movement Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) reside predominantly in Bas-Congo, although BDK has never attempted to gain official recognition as a religious association.

Summary Information

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
[x]
Middle Africa
[x]
The World
[x]
Region Middle Africa The World --
Total Population4 71,332,966 143,378,807 7,335,774,068
Area in square miles 905,355 2,553,164 196,939,900
Life Expectancy from birth, in years5 59.2 59.5 71.9
Gross National Income per capita, in current international dollars5 730.0 6,134.4 16,101.0
Description of Polity Score6 (weakly democratic) -- --
Judicial Independence Composite Score, as average of scores for higher and lower courts7 -0.6 -0.5 0.8
Official Religion(s)8 Christianity -- --

Congo, Democratic Republic of the - Google Map


Religion and the State

Religion and State Collection (2014)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
[x]
Is proselytizing Legal?1 Yes
Is religious registration someties denied?1 Registration is required but is never denied, and treatment of all religions in the registration process is equal
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 Accommodation
The extent to which religious education is mandatory in public schools.1 Optional, or there is a choice between a religion and a non-religion course on topics like ethics, philosophy, or religions of the world.
The extent to which funding is exclusive to one or a few religions.1 Government funding of religion goes roughly equally (taking into account population distributions) to all 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 Some or all officials must take an oath of office which includes mention of God or religion in general.

Constitutional Features [ View Excerpts]

Constitution

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
[x]
Constitution Year10 2005
Last Amended10 2011
Source10 Constitute Project
Translation10 Source is an English translation, edited by ARDA staff.
Current as of10 August 17, 2018

Socio-Economic Measures

Military Measures

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
[x]
Middle Africa
[x]
The World
[x]
Composite Index of National Capability, in fraction of 117 0.0047241 0.001101818 0.005162584
2012 Military expenditure (% of GDP)5 1.1 -- --

Demographic and Health Measures

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
[x]
Middle Africa
[x]
The World
[x]
Total Population4 71,332,966 143,378,807 7,335,774,068
Life Expectancy from birth, in years5 59.2 59.5 71.9
2012 Net Migration Rate (migrants per 1,000 population)5 -75.0 -70.8 --
Urban Percentage of Total Population13 43.0 44.5 54.3
Urban Population Growth, by percentage13 4.5 4.2 2.0
Fertility Rate, in total births per woman13 6.2 5.8 2.5
Infant Mortality Rate, in deaths per 1000 live births13 72.0 65.8 30.5
HIV Prevalence, in percentage of population ages 15-49 with HIV13 0.7 1.7 0.8

Other Measures on Religion, State, and Society


Constitution Clauses Related to Religion


Constitution Excerpts (clauses that reference religion) (Congo, Democratic Republic of the)10

Preamble

Conscious of our responsibilities before God …

Article 1.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is, within its frontiers of 30 June 1960, … secular.

Article 13.

No Congolese person may, in matters of education or of access to public functions or any other matter, be subject to a discriminatory measure, that results from the law or from an act of the executive, for reason of his religion …

Article 22.

All persons have the right to freedom of thought, of conscience and of religion.

All persons have the right to manifest their religion or their convictions, alone or as a group, both in public and in private, by worship, teaching, practices, the accomplishment of rites and the state of religious life, under reserve of respect for the law, for public order, for morality and for the rights of others.

The law establishes the modalities for the exercise of these freedoms.

Article 33.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo grants, under reserve of national security, asylum on its territory to foreign nationals, prosecuted or persecuted, notably, for … their belief …, in accordance with the laws and regulations in force.

Article 36.

No one may be discriminated against [leser] in their work because of … their beliefs …

Article 45.

All persons have access to establishments of national education, without discrimination … of religion … in accordance with their capacities.

The national education establishments shall assure, in cooperation with the religious authorities, to their minor pupils[,] and having parents demanding it[,] an education conforming to their religious convictions.

Article 61.

In no case, even when the state of siege or the state of urgency has been proclaimed in accordance with Articles 85 and 86 of this Constitution, can there be derogation of the rights and fundamental principles enumerated as follows:

(7) the freedom of thought, of conscience and of religion.

Variable Details

  • For more details on State Funding of Religion (FUN_4CAT) see this document.
  • For more details on Societal Discrimination of Minority Religions (SOC_4CAT) see this document.
  • For more details on State Regulation of Majority or All Religions (NXX_4CAT) see this document.
  • For more details on State Discrimination of Minority Religions (MXX_4CAT) see this document.
  • 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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are aware of any incorrect information provided on this page.

    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.

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