In 1970, only 1% of people in Switzerland said they had no religion. Today this group is the largest, at 36% and growing.

Official from the Federal Statistical Office show the exponential growth of those who “do not identify with any religion” (see orange bar).

In the land of Calvin, Zwingli and Felix Manz, the Protestant Church continues to suffer a bloodletting. Data for 2023 show that for the first time, less than 1 in 5 in Switzerland identifies with the mainline Protestant Swiss Evangelical Church (SEK). The current 19.5% contrasts with 49% in 1970 or 34% in 2000.

The Catholic Church in Switzerland has also suffered losses, albeit smaller ones. Today, three out of ten Swiss say they are Catholic (31%) compared to 42% in 2000.

In this Central European country with a long Christian tradition reflected in its flag and anthem, not belonging to one of the two big churches is no longer taboo.

For Daniela Baumann, communications director of the Swiss Evangelical Alliance, the figures “primarily show the continuation of a familiar trend: the proportion of people who do not belong to any religion is continuing to rise”.

She told Evangelical Focus that for already a long time there has been “no stigma for people turning away from religion in Switzerland”.

Evangelicals and Muslims with similar presence

Are free evangelical churches counteracting the negative trend of Christianity in Switzerland? Official data include Baptists, Brethren, Charismatics and other independent groups in the almost 6% of the category “other Christian communities”.

Baumann explains that the Swiss Evangelical Alliance has a base of “around 250,000 Christians, and the majority of them are from free churches but some also from the national Protestant Church”.

A recent study of the University of Lausanne found that 9.5% of the population in Switzerland regularly attend a church service, of which just under a third, 200,000 people, attend an evangelical free church.

Another recent analysis commissioned by Freikirchen, shares Baumann, “shows that the free churches have managed to halt the downward trend and have been growing again since the pandemic years”.

This stability of evangelical Christians as a confessional minority in Switzerland puts them at a similar level to Muslims, who in 2023 reached 6% for the first time.

8% say they suffered religious discrimination

For the first time, the Swiss survey asked about religious discrimination: practices in which a person (or a group) has their rights restricted, is treated unequally or intolerantly, humiliated, threatened or endangered.

“The fact that 8.2% of the total population stated that they had been discriminated against on the basis of their religious affiliation in the twelve months prior to the survey is a relatively high figure”, analyses Baumann.

She also points to the fact that among Muslims, one in three says they have experienced discrimination, a “figure that is significantly high”. Among evangelical Christians, 17% also mention religious discrimination.

For the communications person of the Evangelical Alliance, these new data show “how important it is that the representatives of the various religions and denominations in Switzerland stand up for peaceful coexistence and promote mutual respect”.