The 2025 General Household Survey, released on June 30, shows that Christianity’s share of Singapore’s resident population has fallen to 17.1%, down from 18.9%. This 1.8-percentage-point decline represents the first recorded decline in Christianity’s share of Singapore’s resident population after four decades of uninterrupted growth, according to the official survey data.
How the decline breaks down by denomination
While the overall percentage of Christians—which includes both Catholics and Protestants—has dipped, the decrease is not uniform across all denominations. The 2025 survey indicates that the Catholic demographic has continued to grow, recording a 13% increase since 2020. Conversely, the Protestant population saw a significant decline, falling by almost 66,000 – a 16% drop. This marks the first time that the Protestant population and the total Christian population saw a recorded decrease in Singapore, driving the overall downward trend for the Christian community.
Why the shift is not linked to age demographics
The decline in the Christian population is not solely a result of death by ageing. Data from the 2025 General Household Survey shows that the drop is present across all age cohorts. When comparing specific age groups from the 2020 Census of Population to their corresponding brackets in 2025—such as those aged 15–19 in 2020 now appearing in the 20–24 bracket—every age group demonstrated a sharp decrease. This trend aligns with a broader rise in the number of residents reporting “no religion,” which increased from 20% in 2020 to 23.9% in 2025.
What experts anticipate for the future of the church
Following these statistics, there should and will be much soul-searching done by the Singapore church. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted church attendance, as many individuals lost their church-going habit during the global pandemic. While some churches transitioned to online services, the rise of the online church was not enough to mitigate the impact.
Moving forward, the church may prioritize new approaches to evangelism and discipleship as they look to address these findings. The timing of the report coincides with the annual LoveSingapore 40.Day Season of Prayer, an event that has taken place since 1997. As the church enters this 30th straight year of united, synchronised prayer beginning July 1, the statistics are likely to serve as a catalyst for discussions regarding the future of religious engagement and the potential need for modernized methods of outreach.
