Central Ukraine
According to a 2016 survey of religion in Ukraine held by the Razumkov Center, approximately 73.5% of the population of central Ukraine declared to be believers, while 4.8% declared to be non-believers, and 2.6% declared to be atheist. Of the total population, 86.5% were Christians (76.7% Eastern Orthodox, 6.5% simply Christians, 1.9% Latin Rite Catholics, 1.0% members of various Protestant churches, and 0.4% members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church), 0.3% were Jewish, and 0.1% were Muslims. Not religious and other believers not identifying with any of the listed major religious institutions constituted about 12.8% of the population.
Modern history of Ukraine
Despite the ongoing Soviet Union-wide antireligious campaign, the Ukrainian national Orthodox church was created called the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). The Bolshevik government initially saw the national church as a tool in their goal to suppress the Russian Orthodox Church always viewed with the great suspicion by the regime for its being the cornerstone of pre-revolutionary Russian Empire and the initially strong opposition it took towards the regime change. Therefore, the government tolerated the new Ukrainian national church for some time and the UAOC gained a wide following among the Ukrainian peasantry.