Increased Interest in the Church Among Young People

According to some reports, there is a growing interest in spiritual matters and Christianity among young people, something that is reflected in the Church of Sweden’s statistics for 2025.

Last year, the Church of Sweden had 29,000 confirmands, which corresponds to 45 percent of all 15-year-olds belonging to the church—the highest percentage since 2011. This upward trend can be seen in parishes across all of the church’s dioceses.

“Now we can actually start talking about a trend. It’s not just that the decline has leveled off; the activity is starting to grow,” says Jonas Bromander, investigator at the Church of Sweden’s unit for research and analysis, to Kyrkans tidning.

One example of where there is more to do is in the Örebro parish, where parish educator Therese Blixt at Längbro parish observes that confirmands have a different kind of interest than ten years ago. She believes there is a longing for meeting places to talk about life, and that the church is an arena where young people can feel safe to do so.

According to Blixt, young people no longer get confirmed to obtain a moped, but because they are genuinely interested in faith, life, and spirituality.

A Break from Performance Demands

Sara Fransson at the unit for research and analysis at the church headquarters has studied young people’s attitudes towards confirmation and points out three reasons for the increased interest. One is that much of young people’s lives is about doing things that are considered useful, and confirmation is a break from having to perform or be evaluated.

Another factor is the troubled times we live in, which often leads people to seek religion. Yet another reason is the reporting itself about young people turning to the church, which in turn sparks more interest.

“Those who were baptized as children and are confirming themselves today are way more fired up about Christian faith than 15 years ago,” says Sara Fransson.

20,000 New Members

At the same time, the figures for 2025 show that the number of new members was higher than previously thought: 20,151 people. The number leaving was almost 44,000, which is considered low given that it was an election year.

Besides the youngest, there are also many elderly—those over 70—who are joining again.

However, one thing that has dropped sharply is the number of children and young people participating in regular group activities in the church. Here, almost a halving has been observed since 2018, with the number now at 68,488. The number of volunteers has also plummeted, from 71,652 in 2019 to 37,605 in 2025.