linguistic:paraphrasing
Religion

Zambia is officially a "Christian nation" under the 1996 constitution, but recognizes and protects freedom of religion. While fewer than three per cent of the population still observe indigenous faiths, Zambian Christianity is highly syncretic, and many self-identified Christians blend elements of traditional African religion with their faith.

About three-fourths of the population adheres to one of several non-Catholic Christian denominations, including Anglicanism, New Apostolic Church, Lutheranism, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; many Zambians also observe broader, nondenominational Christian movements, such as Branhamism, Pentecostalism, and Evangelical denominations. Roughly one-fifth are Roman Catholic.

Christianity arrived to Zambia through European colonialism, and its wide variety of sects and movements reflect changing patterns of missionary activity; for example, Catholicism came from Portuguese Mozambique in the east, while Anglicanism reflects British influences from the south. Following its independence in 1964, Zambia saw a greater influx of other church missions from across the world, particularly North America and Germany. In subsequent decades, Western missionary roles have been assumed by native believers (except for some technical positions, such as physicians). After Frederick Chiluba, a Pentecostal Christian, became president in 1991, Pentecostal congregations expanded considerably around the country.

A large number of otherwise smaller Christian denominations are disproportionately represented in Zambia. The country has one of the world's largest communities of Seventh-day Adventists on a per-capita basis, accounting for about 1 in 18 Zambians. The Lutheran Church of Central Africa has over 11,000 members in the country. Counting only active preachers, Jehovah's Witnesses, who have been present in Zambia since 1911, have over 204,000 adherents; more than 930,000 attended the annual observance of Christ's death in 2018. About 12 per cent of Zambians are members of the New Apostolic Church; with more than 1.2 million believers, the country has the third-largest community in Africa, out of a total worldwide membership of over 9 million.

Not including indigenous beliefs, non-Christian faiths total less than three per cent of the population, though are nonetheless highly visible, particularly in urban areas. Followers of the Baháʼí Faith number over 160,000, or 1.5 per cent of the population, which is among the largest communities in the world; the William Mmutle Masetlha Foundation, run by the Baháʼí community, is particularly active in areas such as literacy and primary health care.

Approximately 2.7 per cent of Zambians are Muslim, which are highly concentrated in urban areas. About 500 people belong to the Ahmadiyya community, which is widely considered a heretical sect. There is also a small but successful Jewish community, composed mostly of Ashkenazis.