Other divisions · Faith
Catholic and Protestant Germany
On census day 2022 Germany split three ways: 25% of its people were Roman Catholic, 23% Protestant and 52% in neither church. Catholics lead in 160 of the 401 districts and Protestants in 96. In the other 145 most people belong to neither: every eastern district except Eichsfeld, Berlin, and 70 western districts led by Hamburg, München and Region Hannover.
| Zone | Districts | People | Share | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catholic More Roman Catholics than Protestants | 160 | 29.4 m | 35.2% | 133,561 km² |
| Protestant More Protestants (EKD) than Catholics | 96 | 16.6 m | 19.9% | 88,948 km² |
| Neither church Over half the population in neither church | 145 | 37.5 m | 44.9% | 135,080 km² |
The map is still the map of the Reformation. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) let each prince choose his territory's faith ("cuius regio, eius religio"), and the result is visible almost district by district: a Catholic south and west (Old Bavaria, Swabia and the former prince-bishoprics of Franconia, Baden, the Rhineland, Westphalia's Münsterland, Saarland, the Eichsfeld) and a Protestant north and centre. Freyung-Grafenau is the most Catholic district (78% of residents), Aurich the most Protestant (61%).
In the east the old confessional map has been overwritten. Most of the GDR's territory was Protestant before 1945; four decades of state atheism, the Jugendweihe in place of confirmation and the church-tax system after 1990 left most people outside any church. In Brandenburg an der Havel 89% belong to neither of the two churches. The exception is the Eichsfeld district in Thuringia, a Catholic enclave of the Archbishopric of Mainz that held on to its faith through the Reformation and the GDR.
The non-church zone is no longer only eastern. 70 western districts, most of them cities and their commuter belts, such as Hamburg, München, Region Hannover, Köln and Frankfurt am Main, now have a majority outside the two churches, through secularisation and immigration (Muslims, Orthodox Christians and members of free churches count as "neither" here). The most church-bound district is Tirschenreuth, where only 16% belong to neither.
For tour guides: Bavaria is not uniformly Catholic. Nuremberg and the margraviates of Ansbach and Bayreuth in Middle and Upper Franconia turned Lutheran in the 1520s, while the prince-bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg stayed Catholic (Bavaria's districts: 72 Catholic, 15 Protestant). In North Rhine-Westphalia the Catholic Rhineland and Münsterland surround Protestant islands that follow old territories: the County of Mark (Hagen, Unna, Märkischer Kreis), Siegerland, Minden-Ravensberg and Lippe. In Protestant Lower Saxony, Emsland, Osnabrück and the Oldenburger Münsterland (Cloppenburg, Vechta) are Catholic, the legacy of the Prince-Bishoprics of Münster and Osnabrück.
Does the line still show?
Today's figures on each side, as population-weighted averages of the district values (our calculation from the live themes on this site).
| Indicator | Catholic | Protestant | Neither church |
|---|---|---|---|
| AfD vote 2025 | 19.3% | 20.4% | 21.5% |
| Green vote 2025 | 10.7% | 10.6% | 13.3% |
| Unemployment 2025 | 5.2% | 5.5% | 7.6% |
| Gross monthly salary € 31.12.2025 | 4,087 | 4,062 | 4,283 |
| Young people 31.12.2025 | 12.8% | 12.4% | 13.8% |
| Childcare 1 March 2025 | 33.4% | 33.8% | 45.0% |
| Foreign population 31.12.2025 | 15.4% | 14.6% | 19.0% |
How we drew the line
For each district we took the Zensus 2022 count of residents by religion (reference date 15 May 2022): members of the Roman Catholic church, of the Protestant church (the EKD member churches, both counted as public-law religious bodies) and everyone else. Where people in neither of the two churches made up more than half the population, the district is "Neither church"; otherwise it takes the colour of whichever church had more members. The value shown for each district is the share of the group that gives it its colour: % Catholic in Catholic districts, % Protestant in Protestant districts, % in neither church in the rest. Districts are those of 2022; Hanau, a separate district since 2026, shows the figures of its former district Main-Kinzig-Kreis. Population and area per zone refer to 31 December 2025 and today's districts.
- Reference date 15 May 2022: the Zensus is the only official count of church membership for every district. Both churches have lost about a million members since (see the theme on religion for 2025 state figures), so the "Neither church" zone has probably grown.
- "Neither church" includes people with no religion as well as Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Jews, members of free churches and people whose affiliation is unknown; the census only records membership of public-law religious bodies.
- Membership is a formal status (church tax), not belief or attendance.
- A district coloured Catholic or Protestant can still have more people outside the churches than in the leading church, as long as they are not an absolute majority.