Macedonian Orthodoxy is the largest religion in North Macedonia, but about a third of the country’ s population is Muslim, most of whom live in the northern and western Parts of the country and are of Albanian descent.
Total population: 2.1 million
Muslim population (2020): 870.000
The North Macedonia constitution recognizes five religious groups, including the Muslim religious group in North Macedonia, and states that they are equal before the law and are free to build schools, charities and other social institutions.
The law does not allow religious organizations to run primary schools, but it does allow them to run secondary schools and above. Religious secondary schools have their own curricula and are not subject to licensing by the Ministry of Education.
Macedonia avoided the ethnic and religious violence that ravaged most of the Balkans after the breakup of Yugoslavia. However, in the beginning of 2001, there was an uprising demanding more rights for the ethnic Albanian minority, a group that includes mostly Muslims. With the support of the European Union and NATO, an
agreement was reached, granting them more rights.
