Number of Catholics in Germany shrunk by over half a million in 2025

The number of Catholics in Germany shrank by more than half a million in 2025, leaving just 19.22 million Catholics in the country, according to the latest Church statistics released Monday by the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK).

The figure represents a decline from the previous year’s total of roughly 19.77 million, meaning Catholics now make up 23% of the total German population. Only 6.8% of those Catholics practice their faith by regularly attending Sunday Mass — less than 2% of the country’s overall population.

The share of practicing Catholics rose from 6.6% to 6.8%, but a closer look reveals that fewer people actually attended Mass in 2025 than the year before: 1.304 million compared with 1.306 million. The percentage increase is a statistical effect of the sharp drop in the total number of Catholics.

Six dioceses now have a double-digit percentage of Massgoers, up from five the previous year: Dresden-Meissen, Eichstätt, Erfurt, Görlitz, Magdeburg, and Regensburg. Four of the six are East German diaspora dioceses, and two are in Bavaria.

While the number of confirmations and first Communions remained stable between 2024 and 2025, only about 109,000 people were baptized — a decrease of more than 7,000 baptisms.

The number of readmissions and new entries into the Church increased slightly, though still fewer than 750 people in each category.

At the same time, formal departures from the Church — a legal process in Germany that exempts individuals from the country’s church tax — fell from over 321,000 to around 307,000, continuing a downward trend in recent years.

Bishop Wilmer’s response

Bishop Heiner Wilmer, SCJ, of Hildesheim, chairman of the DBK, commented on the latest figures.

“I am grateful for the committed work of the full-time staff in our Church and also for the quality of pastoral care,” Wilmer said. “It is a welcome sign that Mass attendance is once again slightly increasing. And I see it as a positive sign that the numbers for first Communion and confirmation have remained stable.”

Nevertheless, Wilmer said he regrets “the still high number of departures from the Church.”

“The motives are different, and yet I say — because we are a community of believers through baptism and confirmation — that every Church departure hurts us,” he said. “We are becoming fewer Christians in Germany, which does not stop us — with all the necessary measures that this entails — from giving witness to our faith with great personal commitment.”

Wilmer expressly addressed “a word of thanks to all volunteers in our Church.” They are “not captured by the statistics,” he said, but there are “around 600,000 who ensure that the Church with its diverse offerings is made possible in society in the first place.”

He added: “Despite all the upheavals, I encourage us not to bury our heads in the sand but to look forward and seek together — also in ecumenical solidarity — ways in which being Christian today can lead to greater acceptance in society.”

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.