The number of church exits in Switzerland remains at a record high.
Published: Sunday, Oct 29th 2023, 12:41
Updated At: Monday, Oct 30th 2023, 00:54
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In Switzerland, a record 34,600 people left the Catholic Church last year, surpassing the previous record of 2021 by more than 300 departures.
By the end of 2022, the membership in Switzerland was estimated to be around 2.89 million members, according to the Swiss Pastoral Sociological Institute (SPI) on Sunday. This was first reported by the "SonntagsBlick".
The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SPI) expects the number of people leaving the Catholic Church to continue to rise in the current year. The institute cites the report on the history of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland as the reason for this.
In recent weeks and months, the Catholic Church has lost credibility and trust, according to SPI. Systematic cover-ups, protection of perpetrators over victims, and other accusations have been raised. This has cost the Church its credibility.
In 2022, the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Aargau and Solothurn recorded the highest number of departures from the Catholic Church. In contrast to the departures, the Swiss Protestant Church (SPI) reports that entries have been at a low level for years. In 2022, 1,080 people joined the Catholic Church.
The same numbers are used in the Evangelical Reformed Church.
At the end of 2022, the number of members of the Reformed Church in Switzerland was around 1.92 million, according to the survey. This is despite the high number of departures from the church in the past year, with 30,393 people leaving the church in 2021, compared to 28,540 in 2021.
The Church Statistics of the SPI is based on its own surveys in the parishes, as well as on data from third parties, namely the Federal Statistical Office (BFS).
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