Religion

Following from the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, France guarantees freedom of religion as a constitutional right. 

A 1905 law instituted the separation of Church and State and prohibited the government from recognizing, salarying or subsidizing any religion. 

In the preceding situation, established 1801-1808 of the Concordat, the State used to support the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Calvinist Church and the Jewish religion and provided for public religious educations in those religions (for historical reasons, this situation is still current in Alsace-Moselle).

The French government does not keep statistics as to religion.

The 2003 CIA World Factbook lists the religion of France as: 

• Roman Catholic 83-88%,
• Protestant 2%, 
• Jewish 1%, 
• Muslim (North African workers) 5-10%, unaffiliated 4%

It is unclear where these numbers come from.

However, in a 2003 poll 41% said that the existence of God was "excluded" or "unlikely". 33% declared that "atheist" described them rather or very well, and 51% for "Christian". 

When questioned about their religion, 62% answered Roman Catholic, 6% Muslim, 2% Protestant, 1% Jewish, 2% "other religions" (except for Orthodox or Buddhist, which were negligible), 26% "no religion" and 1% declined to answer. 

The discrepancy between the number of "atheists" (41%) and the number of with "no religion" (26%) may be attributed to people who feel culturally close to a religion, follow its moral values and traditions, but hardly believe in God. 

In France, there is a strong gap between civilian life and religion. Religion is considered as private as possible. French people in general are opposed to clerical power and its influence in policy. 

Islamic fundamentalism is considered as a real threat for the cohesion of the french society where communitarism is not accepted. 

This had already occurred in the past with Catholics before the French Revolution in 1789.