Religiously, Fiji is a mixed society, with Christianity and Hinduism being the main faiths.
Overview
According to the most recent census in 2007, most people have a Christian background (64.4% of the population), with a sizable Hindu (27.9%) and Muslim (6.3%) minority. Religion tends to split along ethnic lines with most Indigenous Fijians being Christian and most Indo-Fijians being either Hindu or Muslim.
According to the World Religion Database, in 2020, Christians made up 63.91% of the population (mainly Protestant), 27.74% are Hindu and 6.2% are Muslims; 1% have no religion.
Aboriginal Fijian religion could be classified in modern terms as forms of animism or shamanism, traditions utilizing various systems of divination which strongly affected every aspect of life. Fiji was Christianized in the 19th century. Today there are various Christian denominations in Fiji, the largest being the Methodist church. Hinduism and Islam arrived with the importation of large numbers of people from South Asia, most of them indentured, in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Fiji has many public holidays as it acknowledges the special days held by the various belief systems, such as Easter and Christmas for the Christians, Diwali for the Hindus and the Eid al-Adha for the Muslims.
History
Fijian religion prior to the 19th century included various forms of animism and divination. Contact from the early 19th century with European Christian missionaries, especially of the Methodist denomination, saw conversion of dominant chiefs such as Octavia and thus also the people they controlled. Cession of the islands to Great Britain in 1874 saw great change in all aspects of life including religious practice. Christianity became the dominant faith. Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam were introduced as minority migrant communities came to work in Fiji.
Demographics
† Includes atheists and agnostics. Source: ,
Law
Fiji had traditional law prior to becoming a colony. After cession, laws that governed Britain were also applied to its colonies and religion developed under the Westminster system. Freedom of religion and conscience has been constitutionally protected in Fiji since the country gained independence in 1970. In 1997, a new constitution was drawn up. It stated Although religion and the State are separate, the people of the Fiji Islands acknowledge that worship and reverence of God are the source of good government and leadership. but also guaranteed every person 35.-(1) Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief.
(2) Every person has the right, either individually or in community with others, and both in public and in private, to manifest his or her religion or belief in worship, observance, practice or teaching.
(3) The right set out in subsection (2) extends to the right of religious communities or denominations to provide religious instruction as part of any education provided by them, whether or not they are in receipt of any financial assistance from the State.
(4) The right set out in subsection (2) may be made subject to such limitations prescribed by law as are necessary:
(a) to protect:
(i) the rights or freedoms of other persons; or
(ii) public safety, public order, public morality or public health: or
(b) to prevent a public nuisance.
(5) Except with his or her consent or, in the case of a person under the age of 18, the consent of a parent or guardian, a person attending a place of education is not required to receive religious instruction or to take part in or attend a religious ceremony or observance if the instruction, ceremony or observance relates to a religion that is not his or her own or if he or she does not hold any religious belief.