Most people in the Caribbean Netherlands belong to a religious group

© CBS
The majority of the Caribbean Netherlands’ population aged 15 and over consider themselves to be part of a religious group. In 2021, 85 percent of the population on Bonaire belonged to a denomination or ideological group; this was 78 percent on St Eustatius and 80 percent on Saba. On St Eustatius, the share who consider themselves religious has decreased since 2017, while no change was observed on the other two islands. This is evident from figures taken from The Caribbean Netherlands in numbers 2023, published by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

On Bonaire and Saba, Catholicism is by far the largest religion, with the respective shares of those belonging to the Roman Catholic church at 60 and 50 percent. On St Eustatius, there are three religious groups of approximately the same size: Methodists (25 percent), Roman Catholics (23 percent) and Seventh-Day Adventists (19 percent).

Religions, 2021
EilandRoman Catholicism (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)Methodism (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)Adventism (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)Anglicanism (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)Pentecostalism (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)Evangelicalism (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)Other (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)None (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)
Bonaire60.32.00.44.96.011.215.2
St Eustatius23.324.818.91.73.22.23.822.1
Saba50.13.68.96.72.47.920.4

Decline in religion on St Eustatius

On St Eustatius, the percentage of people who say they are part of a religious denomination or ideological group decreased from 85 percent in 2017 to 78 percent in 2021. There were no significant differences between these years on Bonaire and Saba.

However, the percentage of Evangelists on Bonaire rose from 3 percent in 2017 to 6 percent in 2021. On St Eustatius, the percentage of people describing themselves as Pentecostals fell from 7 percent in 2017 to 3 percent in 2021.

Religious
Kenmerk2021 (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)2017 (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)
Bonaire8581
St Eustatius7885
Saba8076

Lower educated more likely to be religious

On Bonaire and Saba, people with a low level of education are more likely to be religious than highly educated people. The greatest difference is seen on Saba, where 92 percent of the lower educated population are religious, against 72 percent of those with medium or high education level. On St Eustatius, more women (88 percent) than men (68 percent) are religious.
In the European Netherlands, a much smaller share of the population consider themselves to be part of a religious denomination or ideological group: 43 percent in 2022.

Religious, personal characteristics, 2021
KenmerkBonaire (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)St Eustatius (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)Saba (% of persons aged 15 yrs and over)
Total84.877.979.6
Sex
Men83.368.480.1
Women86.587.879.1
Age
15 to 44 yrs82.273.577.6
45 yrs and over87.181.881.6
Level of education
Low90.580.492.4
Intermediate/High79.173.872.4