Religion in Sweden on the citizenship test: a secular state, many religions

Chapter 12 of Sverige i fokus, pages 42 to 44, is about religion: a secular state and a multi-religious country at the same time. The chapter mixes principles with a compact history, and the years in it are exactly the kind of detail the medborgarskapsprov can ask.

What the test can ask

• What secular means: the state is religiously neutral, favors no religion, and guarantees the right to belong or not belong to any faith.
• The timeline of religious freedom, worth learning in order: only the Lutheran church allowed for centuries, leaving the Church of Sweden permitted from 1860 but only for another Christian denomination, full freedom of religion with the 1951 law, and the separation of church and state in the year 2000.
• The constitutional anchor: the Instrument of Government protects the right to practice religion and forbids discrimination based on faith.
• The cultural pattern: membership in the Church of Sweden is falling, yet Christmas, Easter, baptisms, church weddings and Christian funerals remain common even among people who are not believers.
• Christianity in Sweden: the three main branches (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant), the Church of Sweden with about five million members and Lutheran roots from the 1500s, Catholic Sweden in the Middle Ages, and about 3,000 medieval churches still standing.
• Judaism: present since the 1700s, full civil rights in 1870, congregations and synagogues today.
• Hinduism and Buddhism: contacts mainly through the 1900s, congregations and temples today.
• Islam: few Muslims before the Second World War, the first mosques in the 1970s, the Stockholm Mosque in 2000, and Islam as Sweden's second largest religion with Sunni and Shia traditions represented.

How to study it

The module En sekulär stat och ett mångreligiöst land covers the chapter in simple Swedish with cited questions on the timeline and the religions. Then take the free mini mock.

Source: Sverige i fokus (UHR, 2026), pp. 42-44.

Independent study material. Not affiliated with UHR or Migrationsverket. Not legal advice.