Europe: from cradle of missions to mission field
The continent that sent missionaries to the whole world, in numbers and with sources.
For most of the history of the church, Europe stood at the centre of the Christian faith. It was there that the gospel took root after the apostle Paul crossed over to Macedonia, there the Reformation happened, and from there went the missionaries who carried the gospel to India, China, Africa and the Americas, from William Carey to Hudson Taylor and David Livingstone. According to the Pew Research Center, in 1910 about two thirds of the world's Christians lived in Europe.
That picture has changed. By 2010, Europe already held only 26% of the world's Christians, and in 2020 it stopped being the region with the most Christians, a place that passed to Sub-Saharan Africa (30.7%). The change did not come only from growth on other continents: it also came from Europeans who stopped identifying as Christian.
Gordon Olson and Don Fanning note that "Europe was not seen as a mission field until after World War II". In 1963, Robert Evans published Let Europe Hear, one of the first appeals for churches to look at Europe as a field in need. More than sixty years later, the numbers prove him right.
Europe in four numbers
Each number has its source right below it. When it is an estimate, it is marked.
They were 19% in 2010 and rose to 25% in 2020: 190 million people.
Source: Pew Research Center, 2025 · 2020
From 75% to 67% of the European population between 2010 and 2020. The main reason: people who stopped identifying as Christian.
Source: Pew Research Center, 2025 · 2020
In 17 European countries, evangelicals are less than 1% of the population.
estimate Source: Operation World (7th ed., 2010; prayer calendar, 5 de February) · 2010
In 1910, about two thirds of the world's Christians lived in Europe. In 2010, 26%.
Source: Pew Research Center, "Global Christianity" (2011) · 2010
Country by country
Portugal is highlighted in every chart, for you to compare. Across Europe, the decade from 2010 to 2020 was one of loss for the Christian faith: 23 countries had a religious change of 5 points or more, and in all of them the change was a drop in the percentage of Christians.
- Czech Republic73%was 69% in 2010
- Netherlands54%was 46% in 2010
- France43%was 34% in 2010
- United Kingdom40%was 29% in 2010
- Belgium39%was 32% in 2010
- Germany36%was 32% in 2010
- Sweden29%was 21% in 2010
- Spain26%was 19% in 2010
- Europe (total)25%was 19% in 2010
- Ireland16%was 6% in 2010
- Portugal14%was 7% in 2010
- Italy13%was 7% in 2010
- Poland9%was 3% in 2010
Source: Pew Research Center, "How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020" (2025). Estimates for the population of all ages, drawn from censuses, surveys and registers (more than 2,700 sources).
- United Kingdom13 pts62% → 49%
- Sweden12 pts73% → 61%
- France11 pts57% → 46%
- Ireland11 pts92% → 81%
- Belgium10 pts61% → 51%
- Spain10 pts79% → 69%
- Netherlands8 pts43% → 35%
- Europe (total)8 pts75% → 67%
- Italy8 pts88% → 80%
- Portugal7 pts92% → 85%
- Germany6 pts62% → 56%
- Poland6 pts97% → 91%
- Czech Republic4 pts30% → 26%
Source: Pew Research Center, "How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020" (2025).
- United Kingdom7.5%
- Sweden5.7%
- Netherlands4.0%
- Portugal3.5%
- Germany2.1%
- Ireland1.7%
- Spain1.6%
- Italy1.5%
- Belgium1.4%
- France1.3%
- Czech Republic0.7%
- Poland0.3%
estimate Source: Joshua Project, country profiles. Joshua Project estimates, which include children and attendees; that is why Portugal shows 3.5% here and 2.1% in the 2021 Census (15+). Consulted on 25/09/2026.
- Italy43%39% seldom or never
- Ireland37%41% seldom or never
- Portugal36%42% seldom or never
- Austria30%48% seldom or never
- Switzerland29%53% seldom or never
- Germany24%53% seldom or never
- Spain23%66% seldom or never
- France22%62% seldom or never
- United Kingdom20%58% seldom or never
- Netherlands18%64% seldom or never
- Norway16%60% seldom or never
- Denmark12%51% seldom or never
- Belgium11%68% seldom or never
- Sweden11%63% seldom or never
- Finland10%58% seldom or never
Source: Pew Research Center, "Being Christian in Western Europe" (2018), p. 96. Survey of 24,599 adults in 15 countries, April to August 2017. Table "Attending religious services seldom or never is the norm in Western Europe".
Where Portugal fits in
Looking only at religious identity, Portugal seems out of step with the European pattern: 85% of the Portuguese identify as Christian, against 67% in the continent's average, and the non-religious are 14%, a little more than half the European average (25%). Portugal is also among the Western European countries where the most people attend Mass or a service.
But the trend is the same as the rest of the continent. In ten years, the non-religious in Portugal practically doubled, both in Pew's estimate (from 7% to 14%) and in the INE Census (from 615,000 to 1.24 million people). And the figure that matters most for mission answers another question: what do these people believe?
- God as described in the Bible 29%
- Some other higher power or spiritual force 57%
- No higher power 3%
- Don't know / no answer 11%
Source: Pew Research Center, "Being Christian in Western Europe" (2018), p. 108. Non-practising = identifies as Christian and attends church at most a few times a year. The remainder (11%) did not know or did not want to answer.
Among the Portuguese who call themselves Christian but hardly ever go to church, most believe in "some higher power", and fewer than a third believe in the God revealed in the Bible. This is what we mean when we say the challenge in Portugal is a lack of understanding of the gospel: many grew up hearing about God without knowing the message. And, with 2,1% of evangelicals in the Census, the church that can explain that message is still very small.
Europe's mission challenges today
In the book Europa Pós-Cristã (Post-Christian Europe, in Portuguese), I highlighted some challenges that make Europe one of the hardest fields in the world. Here are the main ones, each with the data that supports it.
- Secularism. Faith no longer makes a difference in most people's lives. In the median of 15 Western European countries, only 22% of adults attend Mass or a service at least once a month; in the United States it is 50%, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, 83% (Pew, 2018).
- The non-religious, the fastest-growing group. They were 19% of Europeans in 2010 and 25% in 2020: 190 million of people. In the United Kingdom, the land of Carey, Taylor and Livingstone, Christians are already less than half the population (49%).
- A generation growing up without faith. In the Czech Republic, 91% of young people aged 16 to 29 have no religion; in Sweden, 75%; in the United Kingdom, 70%; in France, 64% (Bullivant, 2018). European Christians have a median age of 45; the non-religious, 39.
- Nominalism. Most Christians in Western Europe do not practise, and many of them do not believe in the God of the Bible. Evangelising someone who thinks they already know the gospel is, in many cases, harder than evangelising someone who has never heard of it.
- Pluralism and immigration. Europe receives people from all over the world. Muslims came to make up 6% of Europeans in 2020 (Pew, 2025), and immigrant Christian churches are growing, often without reaching native Europeans. In Portugal, 38.1% of evangelical pastors are Brazilian (AEP, 2023).
A work of generations
None of this is a reason for discouragement. The gospel has been preached to an indifferent Europe before, and God awakened the church in 18th-century England, when many considered Christianity finished. But re-evangelising Europe is not done with events. As David Smith wrote, "it is likely to be a work of generations, perhaps even centuries". It needs people who will go, who will stay, who will learn the language and culture, and who will raise up local leaders.
"We could say that Europe, which so evangelised the world, is today an immense region to be evangelised."Augustus Nicodemus
Europa Pós-Cristã (Post-Christian Europe): from cradle of missions to mission challenge
The history of the gospel in Europe, from its arrival through the Reformation to modern missions, and the factors that turned the continent into a mission field. A book by Pr. Paulo Henrique P. Cunha.
See on AmazonFrequently asked questions
Is Europe a mission field?
Yes. Between 2010 and 2020 the percentage of Christians in Europe fell from 75% to 67%, and the non-religious rose from 19% to 25% of the population, about 190 million people (Pew Research Center, 2025). Evangelicals are about 2.5% (Operation World) and, in 17 European countries, less than 1%.
How many evangelicals are there in Europe?
Operation World estimates about 2.5% of the European population (2010 edition). By country, Joshua Project estimates range from 0.3% in Poland to 7.5% in the United Kingdom. Portugal has about 3.5% in that estimate, and 2.1% in the 2021 Census, which only counts those aged 15 or over. Why the numbers differ.
Which is the least religious country in Europe?
The Czech Republic: 73% of the population has no religion, according to the Pew Research Center (2020). Among young people aged 16 to 29, it is 91% (European Social Survey, 2014-16).
Is Portugal more religious than the rest of Europe?
In identity, yes: 85% of the Portuguese identify as Christian, against 67% in the European average (Pew, 2020), and 36% attend Mass or a service at least once a month, one of the highest figures in Western Europe (Pew, 2017). But among Portuguese who call themselves Christian and do not practise, only 29% believe in God as described in the Bible.
All sources, dates and limits of the data: Sources and methodology · Observatory
Portugal is part of this field
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