Religion in Nauru

Christianity is the primary religion in Nauru. [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90147.htm International Religious Freedom Report 2007: Nauru] . United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (September 14, 2007). "This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain."] According to the 2002 census, approximately two-thirds of Christians are Protestant, and the remainder are Catholic. The ethnic Chinese on the island, approximately 3 to 4 percent of the population, may be Confucian, Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, or nonreligious. The largely Christian communities of Tuvaluan and I-Kiribati expatriates were repatriated in late 2006 following the near cessation of phosphate mining in the country. The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons said they had small numbers of followers among the native population.

Foreign missionaries introduced Christianity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There are a few active Christian missionary organizations, including representatives of Anglicanism, Methodism, and Catholicism.

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the Government restricted this right in some circumstances. There are no indications of widespread societal discrimination against particular religious denominations; however, some elements of the Nauru Protestant and Roman Catholic communities occasionally voice discomfort with religious groups perceived as foreign, in particular the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.

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References