Sweden
POPULATION 8,876,744
CHURCH OF SWEDEN 84 percent
OTHER CHRISTIAN 5.2 percent
ISLAM 2 percent
OTHER 8.8 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The Kingdom of Sweden, which shares the Scandinavian Peninsula with Norway in the north of Europe, has enjoyed a period of considerable material prosperity for much of the past century. Despite the presence of Christianity since the ninth century C.E., Sweden has a reputation for being one of the most secularized countries on earth. Most of the population, however, has retained membership in the Church of Sweden, and the majority of the people look to the church to organize such rites of passage as baptisms, marriages, and funerals. Levels of religious practice are generally lower in urban areas and higher in parts of the country, such as the west coast and the north, that experienced evangelical revivals in the nineteenth century. While Protestant Christianity long enjoyed a relative monopoly within a country that, until the post–World War II period, was ethnically quite homogeneous, increased levels of immigration have led to a diversification of the religious environment, with Catholicism and Islam gaining a higher profile in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Religious Tolerance
According to church law instituted in 1686, all Swedes were required to confess the Lutheran faith, although from 1782 Jews were allowed to settle in the country without converting to Christianity.
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