The Autocephaly Orthodox Church of Albania has reacted to the 2023 Census for the population, rejecting the result of the declaration of religious belief.
The church says the result is incorrect, as according to her, there were some problems in the census.
The church further states that a large number of citizens were not declared religious.
Declaration of the Albanian Orthodox Orthodox Church:
The result of Censi 2023, in terms of the percentage of the number of Orthodox Christians, does not actually reflect reality. This happened for a number of reasons, including a few:
The registrars, in many cases, did not ask interviewees about religious affiliation.
We have documented evidence that a large number of believers were not interviewed because they were not visited by any registrar.
According to our baptism records it is clear that the number of Orthodox Christians is many times greater than the results in Cens.
According to the 1927 statistics, we have this data: Sunni and Bektashi Muslims accounted for 67.5%; Orthodox 22.3% and Catholics 10%.
Although the question of religious belief was optional, the large number of unsustained believers of 332 155, of atheists 85 311, of those who preferred not to answer 244 331, and those who were unavailable 134 451 – totaling 796 248 – approximately 1/3 of the population, testifies to the inaccuracy of this Census.
Press Office of the Archbishop