
In this highly secularized society, Catholicism is but a tiny minority religion. The state church is Lutheran, yet only 9 percent of Danes say religion plays a significant role in their lives at all. Danes do hold an affinity for historical and cultural tradition, and church rituals of baptism, confirmation, marriage and especially funerals are extremely popular. Danes are also quite willing to support the upkeep and clergy of the state church by paying an extra, optional income tax.
Catholic Danes are more conservative than non-Catholic Danes, but more liberal than Catholics in other parts of the world. Much of the Catholic population has been shaped by immigration; the Diocese of Copenhagen reports that “approximately one third of Danish Catholics have been born abroad.” On any given Sunday, a worshiper could attend Mass around Copenhagen in Polish, English, Ukrainian, Croatian, Chaldean, French, Spanish and Italian. Read more...
National Demographics
Catholic Demographics
These statistics are derived from the Vatican's official publication, Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2020 (Vatican City: Librera Editrice Vaticana, 2022). The numbers may differ from data reported by other sources on this site.