Colombia: religious affiliation share 2023, by type

Roman Catholic is the most common religious affiliation in Colombia. In a survey carried out in 2023, nearly 64 percent of Colombian respondents claimed to be of Catholic faith, whereas the second most chosen religion was Evangelism, with 15.7 percent of the people interviewed. More than 14 percent of respondents answered they had no religious affiliation.

 

The advent of evangelicalism in Colombia and LAC

The share of Catholics in Colombia is above the average in Latin America and the Caribbean, where about 53 percent of adults identify as followers of Catholicism. Nevertheless, even if Colombia stood out historically as one of the countries with the largest share of Catholics in the region, their numbers have been dwindling considerably in the past few decades: in the year 2000, 85.5 of Colombians identified as Catholics, over 15 percent points more than two decades later. Meanwhile, Evangelism keeps gaining ground in both the country and the region. While merely 3.4 percent of Colombians were evangelical in 1996, this share had grown almost five-fold by 2020, while atheists and agnostics passed from 4.5 to 10.3 in the same lapse of time. The whole of Latin America is experiencing a similar trend, with evangelists accounting for more than one fifth of the population in countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Brazil. The success of Evangelical Churches in Latin America is related, among other things, to the creation of social safety nets in poor communities, the rise of conservative political parties and movements, and more flexible standards for ordination.

 

Religiosity among young Colombians

Interestingly, eastern religions such as Buddhism enjoy the same popularity as Evangelism and Protestantism among young Colombians. Religion seems to have a considerable impact on youngsters’ life. More than half of surveyed Colombians aged between 15 and 29 claimed that religious beliefs provided them with inner peace, while another 12.5 and 10 percent said that it helped them to quit drugs and gangs, respectively. Only 5.5 percent of the respondents affirmed that religious beliefs had no influence on their lives. As for the religiosity of young Catholic Colombians, very few claimed to be very observant. Around 45 percent considered themselves not very observant, while around a third classified as somewhat observant.