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A bi-confessional country undergoing secularisation

Germany is a country marked by Catholic and Protestant bi-denominationalism. In 1987, West Germany comprised 42.9% Catholics and 41.6% Protestants. Several factors have modified the long-term religious landscape over recent decades: secularisation, individualisation and diversification of beliefs and religious practices or even the increasingly marked presence of Islam. It is also important to note the growing importance of those without confession, which accelerated under the effect of reunification. In 2012 in reunified Germany, there were 30.2% Catholics, 28.5% Protestants, 36.3% without confession and 3.9% Muslims. 2013 estimates indicate 29.6% Catholics, 28.2% Protestants, 36.6% without confession and 4.2% Muslims for a total population of 80.8 million inhabitants*. A significant decline in the proportion of Catholics and Protestants has been observed in recent years; this has particularly manifested itself in the significant numbers of those leaving the Churches.
As regards religious minorities, the Federal Republic of Germany comprises nearly 270,000 Buddhists, some 200,000 Jews, around 165,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses and 100,000 Hindus.

* See (Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst REMID) or Forschungsgruppe Weltanschauungen in Deutschland - FOWID.

See also « L’Allemagne face au défi du pluralisme religieux et de la sécularisation» on ORELA.

D 13 February 2014    ASylvie Toscer-Angot

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