The decline of Germany's Catholic and Protestant churches shows no sign of slowing. According to statistics published on Monday by the German Bishops' Conference and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), the two major churches together lost around 1.13 million members in 2025. The ongoing fall in membership is being driven by continued high resignation numbers and deaths.
Catholic membership dropped by approximately 550,000 to 19.22 million, meaning that just 23 percent of Germany's total population now identifies as Catholic. Resignations remain the primary cause of the decline, though the number of people formally leaving the Church fell by around 14,000 compared to the previous year to 307,117, the lowest figure recorded in the past five years.
The Protestant church experienced an even sharper fall, losing around 580,000 members to stand at approximately 17.4 million. According to EKD statistics, the number of people leaving the Protestant church remained broadly unchanged from the previous year at around 350,000.
Heiner Wilmer, Chairman of the German Bishops' Conference and Bishop of Hildesheim, described the figures as "a reflection of our Church." He noted it was an encouraging sign that the proportion of people attending church services had risen slightly and that figures for first communion and confirmation had remained stable. He added, however, that he continued to regret the persistently high number of people leaving the Church.
A combined total of 214,000 people were received into the two churches through baptism. In the Protestant church, the number remained stable at around 105,000 compared to the previous year, with roughly one in ten Protestant baptisms involving people over the age of 14. The Catholic Church recorded a decline of more than 7,000 baptisms to just 109,000, a sharp contrast to 25 years ago, when more than 220,000 people were baptised into the Catholic Church each year.
The Catholic Church also recorded a fall in the number of church weddings, with around 19,500 taking place in 2025, approximately 3,000 fewer than the year before. The EKD statistics did not include comparable figures for Protestant church weddings.
The shrinking of the Catholic Church is also reflected in a declining number of parishes. Church statistics recorded 8,997 parishes in 2025, down 294 from the end of 2024. Across many dioceses, falling membership numbers are prompting the merger or closure of parishes, with individual church buildings also being abandoned with increasing regularity.
The Catholic Church recorded a new historic low in priest ordinations, with just 25 men ordained in 2025. The previous year saw 29 ordinations, 2023 saw 35, and in the year 2000 the number stood at 154, six times the current figure. The shortage of priests has long been identified as a structural problem facing the Catholic Church, with the role widely regarded as unattractive in part because it remains open to men only and requires adherence to celibacy, the obligation to remain unmarried.
From breaking news to thought-provoking opinion pieces, our newsletter keeps you informed & engaged.
