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Press release

Religious belonging and participation among foreign citizens

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In the years 2011 and 2012 56.4% of foreign citizens aged 6 and over and resident in Italy are Christians (2 million and 56 thousand people out of 3 million and 639 thousand of foreign citizens aged 6 and over resident in Italy). Among them Orthodox are 27%, Catholics 25.1%  and Protestants 2.7%. Whereas Muslims are 26.3%, Buddhists are about 3% and 7.1% are atheist.

Most of Orthodox are among Romanians (62.2%), as well as Buddhists are mainly Chinese (63.8%). Muslims are mostly among Moroccans (34.8%), Albanians (15.3%) and Tunisians (8.3%). Catholics are mostly among Romanians (11.7%), Albanians (10.7%), people from the Philippines (10.2%), Polish people (8.9%), Peruvians (8.1%) and Ecuadorians (7.1%).

The gender diversity of the main foreign communities in Italy is also reflected in religious belonging. There is a prevalence of Muslims among men (33.1% of men compared to 20.4% of women) whereas women are mostly Orthodox (31% compared to 22.2% of men) and Catholics (28% compared to 21,8% of men).

About half of 6-24 year old foreign young people are Christian. Mostly are  Catholics and Orthodox (23.2% of young people aged  6-17 years are Catholic and 25.6% of people aged 18-24 years are Orthodox). Among younger people the Muslims are about 30% of total. Whereas among older foreign citizens there are many Christians (59.2% of people aged 25 years and over), most of them are Catholics and Orthodox, above all among people aged 45 years old and over (Catholics are 29% and Orthodox 28.5%).

For information
Sociodemografic and environmental stastistics directorate

Monica Perez
ph. +39 06 4673.7321
perez@istat.it

Francesca Dota
ph. +39 06 4673.7227
dota@istat.it

Reference period: Years 2011-2012

Date of Issue: 02 October 2015

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