The Protestant faith is losing people within the UK

Protestant churches are experiencing a fancy pattern of growth and decline the world over, with Western nations – particularly the UK – emerging as key areas of concern, in keeping with recent findings from the Pew Research Center.

The data, drawn from surveys conducted in 24 countries in 2024, highlights how “religious switching” – when someone adopts a special faith from the one they were raised in – continues to reshape Christianity globally.

In the UK, Protestantism has been notably affected by this trend, with more people leaving than joining it. 

Pew found that while about 51% of UK adults say they were brought up Protestant, only around 28% proceed to discover with the religion as adults. 

By contrast, roughly 23% of those raised in the religion say they’ve moved away from it, while just 3% have joined it as adults.

The UK joins countries corresponding to Sweden and Germany in recording among the most vital net losses amongst Protestant populations.

Across the study, former Protestants make up at the least 10% of the population in 9 of the 24 countries analysed, underlining the size of movement away from the tradition.

A key driver behind this shift is the rise in religious disaffiliation. 

Many individuals raised in Protestant households will not be converting to other Christian traditions or religions but are as an alternative selecting to discover with no religion. 

This mirrors a broader pattern seen across Western societies, where secularisation continues to influence religious identity.

“Adults who leave Protestantism are likely to change into religiously unaffiliated,” said Pew. 

Australia reflects the same trajectory, where 15% of adults are former Protestants who are actually religiously unaffiliated, while only around 1% have change into Catholic and one other 1% have converted to other religions.

Despite these losses, the worldwide picture shouldn’t be entirely negative for Protestantism. 

In several regions, particularly in Latin America, the movement is gaining ground through conversion. 

Brazil stands out as a notable example, where 15% of adults have joined Protestantism after being raised outside the religion, compared with 6% who’ve left it – leading to a net gain of 9 percentage points. 

Most of those switching into Protestant churches in Brazil were previously Catholic.

Overall, Protestantism shows a more balanced global pattern than other Christian traditions, with gains in some regions offsetting declines in others. 

In the vast majority of the countries studied – 16 out of 24 – nevertheless, Protestants still make up not more than about 25% of the population. 

Only two countries, Ghana (62%) and Kenya (55%), have Protestant majorities.

This relative balance sharply contrasts with developments in Catholicism, which has seen widespread losses as a result of religious switching across most surveyed countries.

In 12 of the 24 countries studied, a majority of the population was brought up Catholic, with figures various from 59% in Hungary to as high as 96% in Poland. 

While many remain within the Church – 92% of Polish adults, for instance, still discover as lifelong Catholics – significant numbers have left.

In fact, former Catholics account for at the least 10% of the population in 15 of the countries surveyed, although Catholics still form a majority in 8 of the 24 places studied. 

Across the total dataset, Catholicism recorded a net decline through religious switching in 21 of the 24 countries studied.

Italy provides a striking example: 22% of adults report that they were brought up Catholic but currently don’t belong to the denomination, while only around 1% were raised outside the Catholic faith but later became a part of it. 

This ends in an overall decline of 21 percentage points linked to spiritual switching. 

Hungary is the exception, being the one country where Catholicism recorded a net gain, with 5% joining the Church in comparison with 2% leaving. 

In Kenya and South Korea, entry and exit levels are roughly equal.

In Europe and parts of Latin America, many Catholics change into religiously unaffiliated, joining the growing number of people that describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or having no particular religion.

Chile illustrates this trend clearly, where nearly one in five adults (19%) were raised Catholic but now describe themselves as having no religious affiliation.

Elsewhere, particularly in countries corresponding to Nigeria, Brazil, Ghana and the Philippines, individuals who leave Catholicism tend, in lots of cases, to maneuver into Protestant denominations. 

This dynamic has contributed to Protestant growth in those regions.