A poll published during January 2007 in the French religious magazine Le Monde des Religions (The World of Religion) showed that the percentage of French people claiming to be Catholic has dropped dramatically in recent years, while at the same time the number claiming to be atheists has soared.

Over the past decade the percentage of people in France claiming to be Catholics has dropped to just 51%, whereas in the year 2000 it was 67%, and at the start of the 1990s it was more than 80%. Conversely the number of people claiming to be atheists has risen from 23% to 31% over a similar period.

According to the UK daily newspaper The Daily Telegraph the editor of Le Monde des Religions, M. Frederic Lenoir, said that France in its mentality as well as in its institutions could no longer be considered to be a Catholic country.

Reported on the web site TF1.LCI.fr, the survey by CSA showed that the average Catholic does not pray very much, nor goes very often to the mass. Of the 51% claiming to be Catholic, 55% said it was because they were born into a Catholic family, 21% because they believe the Catholic teachings, and 14% because the values of the Catholic faith correspond with their own.

The survey revealed further interesting facts about those who claim to be Catholics. Only 52% of them, that is slightly more than half, actually believe that God exists. Breaking that fact down a bit further, the survey reveals only 26% are sure that God exists, with the remaining 26% stating that it is only probable that God exists. Of the remaining 48% of people claiming to be Catholics, 10% said it was not very probable that God exists, 7% were convinced that there is no God, 30% claimed not to know, and 1% had not made up their minds.

The poll cites one of those questioned as saying that the biggest problem for the Catholic church in France is that the younger generation are no longer interested. Another comment was that there are now only older people who attend Mass.

The poll in addition to finding that 51% of the population claim to be Catholic, and 31% to be atheist, also found 4% claiming to be Muslim, 3% Protestant and 1% Jewish.

This survey by the French organisation CSA was carried out by telephone on October 25th 2006, and sampled 2012 people aged 18 or older.

Read the report from TF1.LCI.fr
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Read the report in The Daily Telegraph
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