Religion and History in Belize

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Belize is the only Central American country where English is the official language, a legacy of its history as British Honduras, and its religious life reflects a genuinely mixed Caribbean and Central American population: Roman Catholicism remains the largest tradition at around two in five residents, a share that has fallen steadily as Pentecostal, Seventh-day Adventist and other evangelical Protestant churches have grown, particularly among Belize's Garifuna, Creole and Mestizo communities.

Garifuna spiritual practice, an Afro-Indigenous tradition centered on ancestor veneration and the dugu ceremony that calls on departed relatives for guidance, persists alongside Christian affiliation among many Garifuna Belizeans rather than being displaced by it, much as Maya communities in the country's west retain elements of pre-Columbian belief within an otherwise Catholic framework. Belize's religious diversity has grown further with immigration from Mennonite farming communities and more recently from Mandarin-speaking Chinese and South Asian communities engaged in trade.