According to the official data released by the Evangelical and Catholic churches, Germany has continued to experience a decline in the number of its members over the past year. The combined total of Evangelical and Catholic adherents in Germany has dropped to approximately 37.8 million, a decline of over a million from the previous year’s 38.9 million.
The Catholic Church has reported a significant drop in the number of its members, with the total now below the 20 million mark, accounting for less than a quarter of the country’s population. The Church has also released data on Catholic marriages, which have seen a particularly sharp decline, with only 22,500 ceremonies taking place in 2024, a drop of over 5,000 from the previous year.
The number of Evangelical Christians in Germany has also decreased, with approximately 18 million people belonging to one of the 20 regional churches, a decline of nearly 500,000 from the previous year.
The number of church-affiliated adherents in Germany has been steadily declining over the years. In 1992, there were over 28 million people belonging to the two confessions with constitutional status, with a total of 57 million adherents in a country of around 81 million people. Since then, the Catholic Church has lost over 8 million members and the Evangelical Church nearly 10 million.