Christianity in Kazakhstan is the second most practiced religion after Islam.

Demographics

The 2021 census noted that Kazakhstan is 17.19% Christian, 69.31% Muslim, 11.25% other religious beliefs and 2.25% no religious belief.[1][2]

Other figures suggest that 24% of the population is Orthodox, 1% is either Protestant or Catholic and 1% belongs to other Christian denominations.[3]

In 2022, the government considered several religions as 'traditional', including Hanafi Sunni Islam, the Russian Orthodox Church, Greek and Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Judaism.[4]

In 2009, the majority of Christian citizens were Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, who belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan under the Moscow Patriarchate. About 1.5 percent of the population is ethnically German, most of whom are Catholic or Lutheran. Other Christian groups included Presbyterians, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Baptist (Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists of Kazakhstan) and Pentecostals,[5] Methodists, Mennonites, and Mormons.[6]

Ethnicity in 2009

Orthodox prayers in Zenkov cathedral. Almaty.

According to the 2009 Census, there were 4,214,232 Christians in Kazakhstan. Their ethnic affiliation is as follows:[7]

  • Russians - 3,476,748 (91.6% of the ethnic Russians)
  • Ukrainians - 302,199 (90.7% of Ukrainians)
  • Germans - 145,556 (81.6%)
  • Belarusians - 59,936 (90.2%)
  • Koreans - 49,543 (49.4%)
  • Kazakhs - 39,172 (0.4%)
  • Polish - 30,675 (90.1%)
  • Tatars - 20,913 (10.2%)
  • Azeris - 2,139 (2.5%)
  • Uzbeks - 1,794 (0.4%)
  • Uighurs - 1,142 (0.5%)
  • Chechens - 940 (3.0%)
  • Tajiks - 331 (0.9%)
  • Turkish - 290 (0.3%)
  • Kyrgyz - 206 (0.9%)
  • Kurds - 203 (0.5%)
  • Dungan - 191 (0.4%)
  • Other minorities - 82,254 (52.3%)

History

Map from a 1903 Polish encyclopedia showing the Naiman people living north of Lake Balkhash in eastern Kazakhstan

Before the conquest of Genghis Khan there used to be a minority of Nestorians in the Kazakh region. A bishop's see existed in the town of Merv in the year 334 and Nestorians were in the country when Marco Polo arrived in the late 13th century.[8][9]

By the time Kazakhstan was conquered by Genghis Khan, most of the Naimans were Christians. They remained so after the Mongol conquest and were among the second wave of Christians to enter China with Kublai Khan.[10] Meanwhile, the Naimans who settled in the Western Khanates of the Mongol Empire were all eventually converted to Islam.

A Franciscan monk, William of Rubruck travelled around Kazakhstan in 1254. He met Möngke Khan and Sartaq Khan (great-grandson of Genghis Khan); both men converted to Christianity. A few years later Pope Nicholas III established the Diocese of Kipciak.[11]

Russian Orthodoxy arrived in the country in the 18th and 19th centuries.[12]

Incorporation into the Soviet Union led to decades of Communist Party controls including confiscation of church property, control of education, and the detention and execution of clergy. Political independence in 1991 led to more people taking an interest in religion, as they were now able to read and discuss matters of spirituality; this also led to a rise in the number of citizens identifying as Christians in the 1990s and the early 2000s.[13]

Converts to Christianity

A 2015 study estimates that some 50,000 Christians from a Muslim background reside in the country.[14]

In 2023, the country was ranked as the 48th worst place in the world to be a Christian.[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "2021 жылғы Қазақстан Республикасы халқының ұлттық санағының қорытындылары" [Results of the 2021 Population Census of the Republic of Kazakhstan] (in Kazakh). Agency of Strategic Planning and Reforms of the Republic of Kazakhstan National Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  2. ↑ "Итоги национальной переписи населения 2009 года (Summary of the 2009 national census)" (in Russian). Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Archived from the original on 12 June 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  3. ↑ World Religion Database at the ARDA website, retrieved 2023-08-08
  4. ↑ US State Dept 2022 report
  5. ↑ Kazakhstan CIA The World Factbook
  6. ↑ International Religious Freedom Report 2008 U.S. Embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ↑ EWTN website
  9. ↑ Baptist Theological Seminary website
  10. ↑ Cary-Elwes, Columba. China and the Cross. (New York: P. J. Kennedy and Sons, 1956) p. 37
  11. ↑ EWTN website
  12. ↑ University of Notre Dame website
  13. ↑ Astana Times website, (article dated 22/8/22)
  14. ↑ Johnstone, Patrick; Miller, Duane Alexander (2015). "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census". IJRR. 11 (10): 1–19. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  15. ↑ Open Doors website, retrieved 2023-08-08
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