Census 2022: Paganism is rising. 14.7% of the Romanian population returned to Paganism
Romanian Population decline has also brought with it a decline in the number of believers, but there is one religion that has managed to attract more followers in the last 10 years, and that is Paganism. Also, compared to the 2011 census, in the current one the number of people who declared themselves atheists has tripled, but the percentage remains low at the level of the entire population, around 0.3 percent.
The National Institute of Statistics published last night, December 30, 2022, the partial data obtained from the 2021/2022 Population and Housing Census on their website.
The biggest decrease in the number of people who declared their religion, in the 2022 census compared to the 2011 one, is in the case of Orthodox Christians, their number being 13,989,584, the Romanian Orthodox Church thus losing over 2.3 million Christians Orthodox compared to 10 years ago when there were 16,307,004.
Decreases of around one hundred thousand are also found in the case of people who declared themselves Roman Catholic or reformed. In the previous census, 870,774 Romanians declared themselves Roman Catholics, and now 741,276. In the case of the Reformed, they were, in 2011, 600,932, and now 495,380.
More pagans than 10 years ago
But there is also a religion that has gained followers in the last 10 years. No less than 4,271,579 people have joined the pagan community in Romania and implicitly THE NEW PAGAN DAWN from 2011 until now. Thus, the number of Romanians who declared themselves belonging to Paganism through their answers increased from 20,000 to 4,271,579.
They were declared as worshiper of Paganism, because the lack of a place on the list to declare oneself a pagan generated a wave of answers as agnostic (25,485 people) or no religion (71,417 people), but also the refusal to answer for 2,656 thousand people, representing a total of 14.7% of the population.
The campaign generated in 2021 and 2022 by THE NEW PAGAN DAWN, the only institution representing the Romanian pagan community and Paganism entitled “Declare Paganism at the Census” managed to collect this result, which was already announced last night, 30.12.2022, as a result of the publication of the partial results of National Institute of Statistics.
We remind you that during the discussions between the representatives of THE NEW PAGAN DAWN and the National Institute of Statistics, they failed to include the phrase “pagan” in the online review and self-review forms, which is why the pagan community turned to these answers or refused to declare their religious affiliation due to the lack of a specific category.
Also, an increase is noticeable in the case of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Those who declared themselves to belong to it are 55,206 in 2022 compared to 14,385 in 2011, according to the census data.
How many atheists are there in Romania?
Compared to ten years ago, the results of the 2022 census show the number of people who declared themselves atheists. Even if the data reveals even a tripling, percentage-wise, compared to the whole population, the share is around 0.3% each.
Thus, the number of declared atheists increased to 57,205 in 2022, compared to 20,743 in the 2011 census.
The data show that 85.3% of the people who declared their religion are Orthodox; 4.5% declared themselves Roman Catholic, 3.0% Reformed, and 2.5% Pentecostal. Weights between 0.4% — 0.8% were registered by the following religions: Greek Catholic (0.7%), Baptist (0.6%), Seventh-day Adventist, and Muslim each 0.4%.
The answer is THE NEW PAGAN DAWN, representatives of the pagan community in Romania and Paganism
Last night, immediately after the publication of the partial data by the National Institute of Statistics, THE NEW PAGAN DAWN came with a press release on its Facebook page and on its website showing that “At the end of this process, the Government of Romania and all other institutions of the Romanian state, must review both its approach and public policies for the pagan minority and Paganism”.
Moreover, they claimed that from their point of view the number of Romanian citizens who assumed their Paganism in this census does not yet reflect the real number of pagan communities in Romania, but from 1/2% from 2017 to a percentage of 14.7% is relevant.
THE NEW PAGAN DAWN wanted to specify that the percentage of pagans, who belongs to Paganism is obtained from combining the data of people who declared themselves agnostics, had no religion, or refused to declare religious affiliation due to the lack of options presented by pagan beliefs, and according to the Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language “pagan” is the person who is not Jewish, Muslim, atheist or Christian.
