Where the church stands in Europe
Europe still holds more than half a billion people who identify as Christian, and the identity remains woven into languages, calendars and skylines. But active faith is far rarer than the figure suggests: in much of Western Europe weekly attendance sits in single digits, evangelicals are one or two percent, and the share identifying as Christian is falling with every census.
The most vital growth is coming from the margins: African, Caribbean, Latin American, Chinese and Eastern European congregations in the cities, and a steady if unspectacular church-planting movement. Europe is also home to more than a hundred unreached peoples, mostly in Russia and the Caucasus, and to large diaspora communities from the Muslim world.
Signs of hope
Diaspora congregations re-evangelising the cities that once sent missionaries, and Bible translation advancing among Russia's minority peoples.
The honest difficulty
Deep secularism, historic churches emptying faster than new ones are planted, and restrictions on evangelism in Russia.
How to pray for Europe
Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.
- Pray for Europe — a continent that sent the Gospel and now needs it again.
- Thank God for African, Caribbean and Asian congregations bringing vitality to European cities.
- Ask God to reach a generation with no church background of any kind.
- Pray for the Tatar, Chechen and Caucasus peoples — unreached inside a 'Christian' continent.
Nations in Europe on this site
Each profile carries church size, unreached peoples, what is going well, what is hard, and four prayer points.
Questions people ask about Europe
How many Christians are there in Europe?
About 553 million of Europe's roughly 748 million people identify as Christian — around 73.9% of the population. The trend is declining. Figures follow Pew Research Center's regional definitions and the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, and are rounded estimates that vary by source and year.
Is Christianity growing in Europe?
The continent that carried the Gospel to the world is now a field again. Diaspora congregations re-evangelising the cities that once sent missionaries, and Bible translation advancing among Russia's minority peoples. At the same time: Deep secularism, historic churches emptying faster than new ones are planted, and restrictions on evangelism in Russia.
Which nations in Europe are least reached?
Of the 5 Europe nations profiled on this site, 0 are frontier and 0 are unreached. Every profiled nation in the region has an established church.