Christianity loses out to ‘religious switching’

People around the world are increasingly abandoning the religious identity they were raised with – and Christianity and Buddhism are enduring the biggest losses, according to new research.

A pattern dubbed religious switching has seen people leave their Christian roots behind, particularly across many Western countries. The new study by Pew Research, which questioned almost 80,000 people across 36 countries from six continents, found that the majority of people who switched moved from the religious upbringing of their childhood to an unreligious position, with Christians suffering the greatest losses in most countries.

While Christianity, nominal or otherwise, did make some minor gains in some countries, including the Philippines, Hungary and Singapore, it suffered huge losses in most. The worst ratios were found in Italy and Germany, with just one new convert in adult life replacing the 28.4 and 19.7 which left the faith respectively.