Spain, known for its traditional Catholic background, is the country where the collapse of Christianity as a culture is most clearly seen.

Pew Research has found a generalised trend of abandonment of Christian identity in almost all 36 countries around the world (10 of them in Europe) it has analysed in a report released in March 2025.

The fact that in all the European countries studied, the majority of those surveyed described themselves as ‘Christian’ (reaching peaks of more than 75% in Hungary, Poland, Greece and Italy) suggests that these data reflect Christian nominalism, or cultural Christianity, and not a vital commitment to Jesus Christ in the theological sense of the term ‘Christian’.

 Spain leads the collapse

Spain is the country where the most people say they have stopped identifying with Christianity. 87% of those surveyed were brought up in that religion, but 36% now say they have left that worldview.

3% say they have converted to Christianity from another worldview, while 54% would still define themselves as Christian.

Looking at it from the opposite angle, Pew data in Spain concludes that while only 10% of today’s Spaniards were born in families without a religion, 44% would say they have no religion today.

No other country has seen such a collapse of (nominal) Christianity as Spain, but a strong decline is also obvious in Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany, all with a drop of 30%. In these three countries, half of the citizens raised as Christians no longer identify as such.

On the other side, Hungary

The highest retention of Christian identity, according to Pew data, can be seen in Hungary, another European country.

Only 2% say they have stopped identifying as Christian in Hungary, while 4% say they have converted to Christianity, so there would now be more Christians (79%) than those who were raised in that faith (77%).

In Poland, where 99% say they were raised Catholic, the Christian faith has been highly retained, with only 4% saying they have left it.

Greece, with a drop from 95% to 84%, and Italy, from 94% to 73%, are other countries in Europe where a large majority of citizens continue to identify with the Christian religion.

Despite the negative trend, some convert to Christianity

Pew also analyses the evolution of the ‘nones’, showing that the majority of those who grew up without religion still do not identify with one.

 



However, there are small leaks towards Christianity and other religions. While in the Netherlands and Sweden 9% of those who grew up without religion now express having a faith (in most cases, the Christian faith), the figure for movement towards religion among people raised without religion is higher in Germany (11%), the UK (13%) and France (14%, where there are signs that Islam is also growing).

But the countries where most people who were raised without religion have turned to Christianity are Hungary (17%) and Spain (16%). This would suggest that both the country with the highest number of nominal Christians of those analysed by Pew (Hungary) and the one that has suffered the greatest decline (Spain) continue to show a significant number of conversions to Christianity.

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