POPULATION 8,876,744
CHURCH OF SWEDEN 84 percent
OTHER CHRISTIAN 5.2 percent
ISLAM 2 percent
OTHER 8.8 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

The Kingdom of Sweden, which shares the Scandinavian Peninsula with Norway in the north of Europe, has enjoyed a period of considerable material prosperity for much of the past century. Despite the presence of Christianity since the ninth century C.E., Sweden has a reputation for being one of the most secularized countries on earth. Most of the population, however, has retained membership in the Church of Sweden, and the majority of the people look to the church to organize such rites of passage as baptisms, marriages, and funerals. Levels of religious practice are generally lower in urban areas and higher in parts of the country, such as the west coast and the north, that experienced evangelical revivals in the nineteenth century. While Protestant Christianity long enjoyed a relative monopoly within a country...