Germany: Catholic Church members are leaving in droves

As if the population of Düsseldorf had disappeared - that's how many believers the Catholic Church loses in a year. Baptisms and new members are just a drop in the ocean. What about the number of Protestant members?

Bonn - The Catholic Church in Germany lost 591,718 members last year. This is due to 402,694 people leaving the church and around 226,000 deaths, the German Bishops' Conference announced on Thursday. The loss of members corresponds roughly to the population of Düsseldorf.

The 131,245 baptisms, 4,127 readmissions to the church and 1,559 new members could not offset the loss figures. Thus, around 1.9 percent of Catholics left the church in 2023. In 2022, more than half a million people had already turned their backs on the church.

Thus, as of December 31, 2023, there were around 20.3 million Catholics in Germany. Last year, 18.6 million people belonged to the Protestant regional churches.

Source: Junge Freiheit