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 1995 CIA World Factbook lists the religion of France as:
Roman Catholic 90%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim (North African workers) 1%, unaffiliated 6%.
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 interrogated 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" and the number of "without religion" may be attributed to people who nominally belong to a religion, perhaps out of social pressure or custom, but do not actually believe in it.
See also: Islam in France
Culture
Main article: Culture of France