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The traditional religion of Switzerland as a central European country is christianity. During the reformation several Swiss reformers preached their new interpretation of the christian faith: Huldrych Zwingli and his successor Heinrich [Henry] Bullinger in Zurich (1523) and northern Switzerland, Johannes Oekolampadius in Basel, Guillaume Farel in western Switzerland (1526) and finally John Calvin in Geneva (1536). While Zwingli is by far the most influential of the reformers within Switzerland, Calvin is certainly better known abroad. |
The reformation split Switzerland into two blocks: while the big free cities of northern and western Switzerland (Zurich, Basel, Bern, Geneva, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen) converted to the new creed and forced their subject territories to do the same, the more rural areas of central Switzerland including their inofficial capital Lucerne remained catholic. Four civil wars were waged in Switzerland due to disputes over religion in 1529, 1531 (Zwingli died on the battlefield of Kappel), 1556 and again in 1712.
Switzerland's early industrialisation in the 19th century lead to a considerable internal migration from the catholic rural areas to the industrialised cities (mainly Zurich, Basel, Winterthur, Lausanne, Geneva). Massive immigration from catholic Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal) due to the economic boom after World War II amplified this tendency so that the formerly exclusively protestant urban areas of northern and western Switzerland do have a mixed population now with almost equal numbers of protestants and catholics.
On the other hand, the 20th century trend to live in suburbs resulted in a migration of (mostly protestant) middle class families from urban areas in northern Switzerland to rural areas in (traditionally catholic) central Switzerland, so that reformed churches have been established there as well.
The Jewish community belongs to the religions that have been present in Switzerland for almost 2000 years, but the Jewish minority was always small. During all these centuries severe restrictions concerning professions and residence have been imposed on Jews (as in most other European countries). Only in 1866 Jewish citizens were granted full rights to settle anywhere in Switzerland and to practise any profession.
Buddhism came to Switzerland with refugees from Tibet in 1959, Switzerland was the only European country to grant asylum to 1000 Tibetian refugees. The Buddhist Tibetians have kept up their religious traditions, the community has grown to about 2000 people over the years and nowadays there is even a buddhist monastery in Switzerland. There are only very few native Swiss people confessing to be Buddhists, however. The number of Buddhist refugees is quite small and they practise their religion in their private homes. So for most Swiss people Buddhism still belongs to the religions they know very little of.
Until the 1970's there were hardly any Muslims in Switzerland. But since then, immigration from Turkey, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Northern Africa has increased substantially and today there is a noticeable Islamic community in the country. Muslims have become the third largest religion and have surpassed three of the five traditional religions (dissident Protestants and Catholics as well as Jews).
The new focus of immigration since the 1970's has also resulted in a significant increase in the number of Orthodox Christians. There are only few Orthodox church buildings, however. Often the various Orthodox denominations (Serbian, Russian, Greek) may use Protestant or Catholic churches. So do other small minorities like the Anglicans (mostly British and American immigrants).
Finally, Hinduism came with Tamil refugees in the late 1970's and 1980's. On sundays, many Tamil refugees can be seen at places like Einsiedeln and Mariastein. Maybe the special atmosphere of these classical pilgrim churches reminds them of Hindu temples in their native country. One might take this as a sign of peaceful coexistence between religions in Switzerland.
Percentage of Swiss population adhering to different religions
| Religions | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reformed Christians (main cantonal churches) | 56.3 | 52.7 | 46.6 | 33.0 |
| Reformed Christians ("free" evangelical denominations) | 1.2 | 2.2 | ||
| Roman Catholics | 41.6 | 45.4 | 49.4 | 41.8 |
| Old Catholics (organized dissenters to the dogma of papal infallibility) | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Jewish | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Orthodox Christians | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.8 |
| Muslims | 0.3 | 4.3 | ||
| Others | 0.1 | 1.0 | ||
| Without religion | 1.5 | 15.4 |
As the number of non-traditional believers seemed negligible then, the older statistics polls of 1950 and 1960 did only give four choices of religions: Protestants, Roman Catholics, Old (dissident) Catholics and Jews.
Immigration from far away countries has lead to an increase of the number of different religions as well as an increase of the number of inhabitants adhering to such non-traditional religions. The communities of immigrants are free to exercise their religions. Religions are considered to be an important factor in giving immigrants and their children an identity.
The modern trend of emigration from the traditional churches can be seen throughout western Europe. In Switzerland, taking a leave from religions seems to be more accentuated with the main Reformed Churches, while it is at least partly compensated for in the statistics of religions by immigration from southern Europe with the Roman Catholic church.
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