Population Geographic Indicators of the Transcarpathian Greek Catholics Based on the 2022 Schematism by the Munkács (Mukachevo) Greek Catholic Diocese

Abstract

The religious structure of the population of Ukraine has always raised several questions, and Transcarpathia is not an exception in this respect either. Precise and reliable data on the population’s denominational composition have been missing since the beginning of the Soviet era, and questions targeting them were omitted from the questionnaires of the only-so-far census in the history of the independent Ukraine as well. To dissolve this mist, numerous researchers have performed estimations in the past, received with varied scientific and political adjudication.

In the present study we attempted to define the numbers and proportions of the Greek Catholics within the total population of the region. The underlying data for the research were those in the 2022 schematism of the Munkács (Mukachevo) Greek Catholic Diocese (regarding the 2021 conditions), which we have converted into a usable format by an estimation method drawn in details in the study itself. Furthermore, we have presented a short introduction to the history of the Munkács (Mukachevo) Greek Catholic Diocese in line with the most important information concerning the schematisms themselves.

Based on the results of our investigations we can state that almost 240 thousand Greek Catholics have lived in Transcarpathia in 2021. As to their spatial distribution, they concentrate at the borderside parts of the region as well as in the neighbourhood of its three largest cities. Regarding their proportions within the total population we can notice that the ratio of Greek Catholics is particularly high in the mountainous territories of Transcarpathia, admitting that the numbers of the total population are much lower there than in the lowland sections.