Membership of Church of Norway continues to decline

Sola Ruin Church Church of NorwayThe Sola Ruin Church in Sola outside Stavanger. Even though the Church of Norway is by no means in ruins, the membership continues to drop. Photo: Sola Municipality / Visitnorway.

The Church of Norway lost 16,000 members last year.


The church now has 3.7 million members, 214,000 fewer than in 2005.

In 2018, 70% of the Norwegian population were members of the Church of Norway show figures from the church presented by Statistics Norway (SSB). three years ago, the share was 73%.

Although the decline continues, the pace of development slowed somewhat last year. 11,900 people in 2018, compared with 15,400 the year before. There were also fewer enrolments last year, compared to 2017: 2,100 against 2,400.

There were about 35,700 church burials last year, while 28,600 were baptised.


© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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