Congo, Republic of the
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Religious Adherents, 2010 (World Christian Database)1

Congo, Republic of the Middle Africa World
Baha'i 0.6% 0.4% 0.1%
Buddhist <0.1% <0.1% 7.2%
Chinese Universalist <0.1% <0.1% 6.3%
Christian 89.8% 82.5% 32.8%
Confucianist 0.0% 0.0% 0.1%
Ethnoreligionist 4.8% 6.7% 3.5%
Hindu 0.0% <0.1% 13.8%
Jain 0.0% 0.0% <0.1%
Jewish 0.0% <0.1% 0.2%
Muslim 1.4% 9.7% 22.5%
Shintoist 0.0% 0.0% <0.1%
Sikh 0.0% 0.0% 0.3%
Spiritist 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
Taoist 0.0% 0.0% 0.1%
Zoroastrian 0.0% 0.0% <0.1%
Neoreligionists 0.4% <0.1% 0.9%
Atheist <0.1% <0.1% 2.0%
Agnostic 3.0% 0.6% 9.8%

Religious Demography2

The country has an area of 132,000 square miles and a population between 2.8 million and 3.2 million. Approximately half of its citizens are Christian. An estimated 90 percent of the Christians are Roman Catholic; others include Methodists, Seventh-day Adventists, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and Jehovah's Witnesses. There is a growing Muslim community, estimated at 2 percent of the population. Most Muslim workers in urban centers are immigrants from West Africa, Lebanon, and North Africa. The West African Muslim immigrants arrived mainly from Mali, Benin, Togo, Mauritania, and Senegal. The Lebanese are primarily Sunni Muslims. There is also a significant Chadian Muslim population.

The remainder of the population is made up of practitioners of traditional indigenous religious beliefs, those who belong to various messianic groups, and those who practice no religion. A small minority of Christians practice Kimbanguism, a syncretistic movement that originated in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mystical or messianic practices (particularly among the ethnic Lari population in the Pool region) have been associated with opposition political movements, including some elements of the armed insurrection in the southern part of the country from 1997 to 2003.





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