Degree of Pluralisation

Depending upon the availability of data, which can be qualified as plausible at least to a certain degree, each country was classified as religiously fragmented, pluralised, or dominant.

 

In 30 countries a single religious tradition or denomination was the dominant factor within the given population. In other words: More than 60 percent of the population belonged to one denomination or religious group. The Eastern part of Germany also belongs to this group. Thus, about three quarters of the European countries can be classified as religiously dominant.

Five countries and the Western part of Germany can be qualified as pluralised. No tradition is dominant, but at least one denomination or religious tradition holds a population share of 35 to 60 precent. None of the European countries can be regarded as fragmented in terms of the SMRE degrees of pluralisation thus far.