POPULATION 10,256,760
ROMAN CATHOLIC 26.3 percent
CZECH EVANGELICAL CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN 1.3 percent
CZECHOSLOVAK HUSSITE CHURCH 0.9 percent
OTHER RELIGIONS (INCLUDING JEWISH, BUDDHIST, MUSLIM) 3.1 percent
UNKNOWN 10.1 percent
WITHOUT RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION 58.3 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

The Czech Republic, a mid-size country in central Europe, is bordered by Poland to the north, Germany to the west, Austria to the south, and Slovakia to the east. Formerly part of Czechoslovakia, it gained independence in 1993 as a result of the "velvet divorce," which split Czechoslovakia into two countries: Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Economically developed, the Czech Republic became a member of NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.

Christianity arrived in the area in the ninth century C.E. Later, during the early fifteenth century, Jan Hus, a preacher and university master, led an effort to allow the lay public as well as the clergy to receive the Eucharist under both species...