Representatives of several religious communities state that the overall situation has improved somewhat during the reporting period. The election of a democratic government in January 2000 is a positive step toward greater respect for religious freedom. No law on religious communities has been adopted as yet by the new Government to set general and uniform standards for all religious communities, although several religious leaders expressed hope that one would be passed soon. These statistics correlate closely with the country's ethnic makeup. The Orthodox can be found in Serb areas, notably cities and the war-affected regions, and other minority religions can be found mostly in urban areas.
Most immigrants are Roman Catholic ethnic Croats.
Protestants from a number of denominations and foreign clergy and missionaries actively practice and proselytize. No formal restrictions are imposed on religious groups, and all religious communities are free to conduct public services and to open and run social and charitable institutions. Facilitating the return of refugees is a challenge for the new Government, which has made progress in a number of areas relating to returns. However, many ethnic Serbs who wish to return to Croatia, including Serbian Orthodox clergy, continued to encounter difficulties in obtaining citizenship and travel documents. There were no reports of specific discrimination against Orthodox clergy beyond that faced by other ethnic Serb citizen refugees.