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Christianity has experienced some of the largest losses from religious switching of any faith group around the world, according to our 2024 surveys . Religious switching refers to when people identify with a different religion in adulthood than they were raised in as a child.

Within Christianity, however, religious switching has affected the two largest subgroups – Catholicism and Protestantism – differently:

Catholicism has lost more people than it’s gained in nearly all countries that we surveyed.

Protestantism has seen a net gain from switching in nearly as many places as it has seen a net loss.

Here we take a closer look at religious switching into, out of, and between Catholicism and Protestantism, based on Pew Research Center surveys in 24 countries.

What is ‘religious switching’?…