Albania is a constitutionally secular country in the western Balkans with a population of 2.8 million people.1 According to the 2011 census, the religious demography of the country constitutes a Muslim majority (56.7%), Roman Catholic (10%), and Albanian Orthodox (6.8%). The same census data lists 2.5% of the population as […]

Andorra is a co-Principality with a democratic parliamentary system. The President of France and the Spanish Bishop of Urgell are co-princes of Andorra, who hold honorary positions as heads of state.1 With a population of 78,000,2 Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion in the country and benefits from a privileged […]

Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in 1992, although the State is still subject to a degree of international oversight under the terms of the 1995 Dayton Accords which marked the end of the 1992-95 Bosnian war and the break up of the former Yugoslavia.1 Religious, ethnic, and national identity are […]

Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska), is a unitary, indivisible democratic, social, and parliamentary constitutional republic. After Croatia formally declared its independence and dissolved its association with Yugoslavia in 1991, the Croatian War of Independence started. The war ended in 1995. The present day borders of Croatia […]

Greece is a unitary parliamentary republic on the edge of the Balkan Peninsula, often regarded as the birthplace of democracy in Europe and a catalyst to western civilisation. The country has seen steady economic, social and legal changes in recent years with leftist government attempts towards secularisation of the country. […]

A limb of southern Europe stretching out into the Mediterranean, Italy is a nation whose Roman past penetrates deeply into European cultural history, and whose Renaissance prefigured the modern humanist movement. Despite this, the Catholic Church remains a predominant force in the country today. According to a 2021 study by […]

Kosovo is a multi-party democratic republic bordered by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Serbia. Kosovo became a UN protectorate following the Kosovo War of 1999 with prolonged tensions and violence between its Albanian and Serb populations. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, Serbia continues to […]

Malta is a small, densely-populated, nation in the Mediterranean, south of Sicily and north of Libya. It gained independence from the UK in 1964 and became a parliamentary republic in 1974. An estimated 544,000 people live on the three islands that make up the archipelago.1 Despite the increasing ethnic diversity […]

Montenegro is – in terms of both its size and population – one of the smallest European states. After the collapse of the Yugoslav federation in 1989,1 Montenegro remained a part of a smaller Federal Republic of Yugoslavia but voted in a referendum of 1992 in favour of federation with […]

Lying in the center of the Balkan Peninsula, the Republic of North Macedonia is a parliamentary democracy,1 and an independent state since 1991 (previously part of Yugoslavia). The country has a multi-party democratic system, and is officially a secular state. Experiencing a name change after a parliamentary vote in 2019, […]

Portugal, located on the south-western edge of the European continent, became a republic in 1910, but was soon controlled by an authoritarian one-party regime for almost half a century. Democracy returned to the country in 1974 and a new Constitution was adopted two years later.1 Portugal has been a member […]

San Marino is a microstate encircled by Italy. Whilst the government does not collect statistics on religious demographics, the authorities report that the vast majority of the population is Roman Catholic. Other religious groups are reported to include, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baha’is, Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Christians, and members of the Waldensian […]

Serbia is a land-locked country located in the west-central Balkans. In 2006, Serbia became a stand-alone sovereign republic, marking the final separation of the six states that had previously made up the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia. Serbia has never recognized Kosovo’s independence […]

Slovenia is a parliamentary democracy located on the Adriatic Sea, a member of the European Union and Nato. Prior to 1991, Slovenia was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – which included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia – and was under communist rule for […]

Spain is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral parliament. Its modern history has been marked by the 1936-39 civil war followed by a long period of dictatorship under General Franco until his death in 1975. The country subsequently transitioned to democracy and became part of the European Union in 1986.1 […]