Enquête centralisée sur les bâtiments de culte

On 22 March 2016, the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs made public a document presenting the situation of buildings intended for religious use in Romania (Religious Buildings, 2015*, in Romanian). The document refers to religious buildings in use before 1989, buildings built and finalised after the fall of Communism, and buildings still under construction.

According to the document published, out of a total of 27,384 places of worship, 8,413 were buildings built and finalised after 1989. 1,578 religious buildings are still under construction. Out of the totality of religious buildings : 59.9% belong to the Orthodox, 10.7% to the Pentecostals, 6% to the Catholics, 5.7% to the Baptists, 5% to the Reformed, 4.6% to the Seventh Day Adventists, etc.

New statistics on places of worship and religious associations in Romania

The State Secretariat for Religious Affairs (Secretariatul de Stat pentru Culte - SSC) recently published statistics on the number of places of worship belonging to the 18 recognised religious denominations in Romania, as well as a list of the 30 religious associations that operate according to the Law 489/2006 on religious freedom and the general regime on religions.

According to data published on the SSC’s official website, reflecting the situation as at 31 December 2015, the 18 religions recognised in Romania have 27,384 places of worship. As expected, the largest number of places of worship belongs to the majority denomination, the Romanian Orthodox Church, which uses 16,403 places of worship. However, although the Romanian Orthodox Church calls attention to its press agency’s official website, with a comparative analysis of the latest data and results census (2011), some unexpected items can be seen :

– the Romanian Orthodox Church, whose believers account for 86.45% of the total population, uses only 59.9% of places of worship ;
– the percentage of places of worship used by each faith, except the Romanian Orthodox Church, is higher than the percentage of followers in each denomination recognised in the total population of Romania.

The other document issued by the SSC refers to religious associations, the activity of which is located in Romania. The detailed list of the 30 religious associations comes along with short explanations regarding the legal measures to be taken in order to be considered a religious association, as well as the rights and responsibilities resulting from this.

*See French version : Centralised analysis of places of worship, 2015.