Germany: DBK, Catholic Church statistics published. 21 million faithful, but over 520,000 left the community last year

The German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) and the 27 Archdioceses and Dioceses of the Catholic Church in Germany have today released the Church statistics for the year 2022. In Germany, Catholics make up 24.8% of the total population with 20,937,590 faithful. The number of people who left the Church massively increased again in 2022: 522,821 people (as opposed to 359,338 in 2021). In absolute numbers, the Archdiocese of Cologne had the largest number of people leaving the Church, 51,345 (as opposed to 40,772 the previous year), followed by Munich and Freising (49,029, as opposed to 35,323 the previous year) and Freiburg (41,802, as opposed to 30,043 the previous year). The President of the DBK, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, called the number of people who left the Church in 2022 “alarming”. “While we do not want to ignore these developments”, Mgr. Bätzing said, “we must continue to act consistently, and people should know that we support them and we are here for them”. In 2022, 1,447 people entered the Catholic Church (as opposed to 1,465 in 2021) and 3,753 people were readmitted (4,116 in 2021).
Massimo Lavena