Decline of Christianity in the Western world

[13][16] According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism – a Protestant Christian movement – is the fastest growing religion in the world;[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] this growth is primarily due to religious conversion.

[26] Unlike Western Europe, in Central and Eastern European countries, the proportion of Christians has either been stable or it has increased in the post-communist era.

In at least 12 out of the 29 European countries which were surveyed by the researchers, based on a sample of 629 people, the majority of young adults reported that they were not religious.

[2] In 2018, the Pope lamented the ongoing trend of re-purposing churches: some of them were being used as pizza joints, skating parks, strip clubs and bars.

[34][35] These changes were largely the result of the collapse of Communism and switching to Christianity in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries.

[38] In 2018, Pew Research Center have found a retention rate among Western European Christians of around 83% (ranging from 57% in the Netherlands to 91% in Austria).

[2] Unlike Western Europe, in Central and Eastern European countries the proportion of Christians has been stable or even increased in the post-communist era.

[2] Meanwhile, Christians have relatively high retention rates in Austria (91%), Switzerland and Italy (90%), and Ireland and the United Kingdom (89%).

This was caused by statements regarding homosexuality and same-sex marriage – perceived to be intolerant towards LGBT people – made by a conservative bishop and a politician representing Christian Democrats in a TV debate on the subject.

[50] However, recent social changes, including the lifting of a ban on abortion and the legalizing of same sex marriage, have solidified the growth of liberal thinking in Ireland, particularly within the younger community.

[51] A continued requirement for children entering Irish Catholic owned schools to be baptized keeps the overall level of baptisms high, though the number of individuals practicing a faith or attending church is decreasing.

Problems arising from the sexual abuse of children and the historical persecution of single mothers and their families have also greatly contributed to the decline of Catholicism in Ireland.

[citation needed] The Netherlands has tolerated greater religious diversity among Christian sects than Scandinavian countries, where "automatism" (default registration in the Lutheran Church by birth) has been the norm.

The Church's ministry to the poor was not needed in the modern Netherlands that had developed systems of government welfare and secular charity.

[54] With only 49.9% of the Dutch currently (2015) adhering to a religion, the Netherlands is one of the least religious countries of the European Union, after the Czech Republic and Estonia.

The Catholic sex abuse scandal, the large restrictions on abortions in Poland contributed to this decline in Catholicism among the younger generations.

[57] Adherence to established forms of church-related worship is in rapid decline in Italy and Spain, and Church authority on social, moral and ethical issues has been reduced.

In 2017, a report commissioned by the Christian group Hope Revolution indicated that 21% of British youth identified as "active followers of Jesus".

[73] In a 2017 survey of teenage Australians aged 13–18, 52% declared that they had no religion, compared with 38% Christian, 3% Muslim, 2% Buddhist and 1% Hindu.

[84] With the loss of Christianity's monopoly after having once been central and integral to Canadian culture and daily life,[87] Canada has become a post-Christian and secular state.

[88][89][90][91] Although Mexico is the second largest Catholic country in the world in terms of members, Catholicism has been declining over the past 30 years, from 89.7% of the population in 1990 to 77.7% in 2020.

[31] In 2024, Pew Research Center published a study stating that the percentage of American adults who identify as religiously unaffiliated, known as "nones", numbered 28%, higher than Catholics at 23% and Evangelical Protestants at 24%.

[103] The Southern Baptist Convention has experienced decline: between 2006 and 2020, it lost 2.3 million members, representing a 14% decrease in membership during that period.

[109] More recent studies have found a retention rate closer to 67%, with one-third of those who were Christian in childhood leaving the religion by age 30.

[111] In 2016, increasing costs and priest shortages fueled plans to close or consolidate up to 100 Chicago Catholic churches and schools in the next 15 years.

[128][129][130] Conversely, the Pew Research Center found in 2022 that the decline had continued to accelerate over the previous fifty years.

[31] An article written by Adam Gabbatt in April 2021 for the British newspaper The Guardian claimed that an "allergic reaction" to conservative Christians had caused the decline of the religion as a whole, primarily towards how certain conservative Christians generally do not support the advancement of LGBT rights and abortion rights, a perspective primarily shared by younger people like millennials.

Gabbatt and other researchers interviewed in the article particularly blame the Republican Party for pushing social conservative policies.

[136] Cases of sexual abuse, attempts to hide information, and interference in government affairs have been the main causes of the decline of Christianity in Chile.

The Argentine newspaper Clarín reported that Pope Francis's State visit to Chile in 2018 "had been the worst in his five years of pontificate.