According to the 2022 demographic census released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the percentage of Brazilians who identify as Catholic has fallen to 56.75%. This represents a reduction of 8.4% compared to 2010. Despite this decline, Catholicism remains the largest religion in Brazil, with the highest concentration in the northeast region, where 63.9% of the population identifies as Catholic.
The census also shows that evangelicalism has grown by 5.2% since 2010, comprising 26.9% of the country’s population. Meanwhile, the percentage of Brazilians who identify as having no religion has grown by 1.4%, accounting for 9.28% of the population. The southeast region has the highest percentage of people without a religious affiliation, with 10.5% of the population.
Other religions account for 4.01% of the population, with Spiritists representing 1.84% and followers of Umbanda and Candomblé accounting for 1.05%. The north region has the lowest proportion of Catholics, with 50.48%, while the northeast region has the fewest evangelicals, with 22.47%. Cardinal Jaime Spengler, president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, has referred to the growing number of people without a religious affiliation as “dechurched” and emphasized the need for the Catholic Church to invest in initiation into Christian life and the valorization of small communities of faith.