(ZENIT News / Berlin, 06.27.2024).- The German Bishops’ Conference and the 27 dioceses of the Catholic Church in Germany published the ecclesiastical statistics for 2023 on June 27, 2024. In Germany, Catholics represent 24% of the total population (20,345,872 Church members).
Overall, the number of sacraments administered has slightly decreased: there were 131,245 baptisms (2022: 155,173). The number of church weddings was 27,565 (2022: 35,467). 151,835 children received their first communion (2022: 162,506). A total of 105,942 young people were confirmed nationwide (2022: 110,942). The number of funerals amounted to 226,179 (2022: 240,144). There was a slight increase in attendance at religious services, which stood at 6.2% (2022: 5.7%).
Ongoing structural measures in the dioceses have reduced the number of parishes to 9,418 (2022: 9,624). There are a total of 11,702 priests (2022: 11,987), of whom 5,971 are parish priests (2022: 6,069). In other pastoral ministries, the statistics for 2023 show a total of 3,146 permanent deacons (2022: 3,184), 3,032 pastoral assistants/specialists (women: 1,479, men: 1,553), and 4,044 parish assistants/specialists (women: 3,181, men: 863). The number of priestly ordinations in 2023 was 38 (of which 34 were secular priests and four were religious).
In 2023, 1,559 people entered the Catholic Church (2022: 1,447) and 4,127 people were readmitted (2022: 3,753). The number of people leaving the Church decreased in 2023: 402,694 people left the Church (2022: 522,821).
Thank you for reading our content. If you would like to receive ZENIT’s daily e-mail news, you can subscribe for free through this link.
