Bolivia is a secular state and guarantees freedom of religion. The Constitution establishes that:
The state respects and guarantees the freedom of religion and of spiritual beliefs, in concordance with their world view. The state is independent of the religion.
—Bolivian Constitution, Article 4
According to the 2001 census done by the Bolivian National Statistics Institute, the 78% of the Bolivian population follows Roman Catholicism, while a 19% follows the Protestantism, and 3% has different Christian beliefs. The protestantism along with traditional indigenous beliefs are expanding rapidly.
The number of Catholics is higher in urban areas than in rural regions, where the protestantism reaches its higher level, 20%. In the 2001 census, 2,5% stated not to have any religious affiliation and less than 0,2% stated to have different affiliations, such as Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Bahá'í, Judaism, Buddhism and Shintoism. There are 280 non-catholic religious organizations and more than 200 catholic groups registered by the Government.
There is an active presence of foreign missionaries, such as mennonites, lutherans, members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, among others
