Statistics about France

Statistics taken from www.objectiffrance.org, January 2005

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Membership
70% call themselves Catholics, but about 10% practise regularly. Of these an estimated 300,000 are practising charismatics.
Catholic Missionaries
There are 22,754 Catholic missionaries sent out from France, making France the second largest sending country in the Catholic world.
Catholic Priests
In 1976 there were 41,000 Roman Catholic priests in France.  In 1995 there were only 28,000.  Most priests are elderly and, as there are few young replacements, each priest has to cover an increasing number of communities. 

PROTESTANTS
Churches
There are 2,350 Evangelical churches, representing over 50 denominations. The largest is the Assemblies of God, with 620 churches.
Membership
Estimated membership 3 - 400,000, of which AOG 100,000.  About half of the 170,000 Gypsies in France have become believers in the last 40 years.
New Churches
400 new Evangelical churches have been started in the past 12 years. Over 1,000 new churches have been started since 1970.
Ministers
There are 2,300 full-time pastors, evangelists and missionaries working in France, of which 410 are AOG.
Communes
Of the 36,664 communities in France, approximately 34,500 have no resident evangelical witness.
Towns of 10,000
In 1996 there were 254 towns of over 10,000 people which had no Evangelical church.
Missionaries
There are 1,224 missionaries working in France, and 452 missionaries sent out from France today. 

ISLAM
Membership
7.7% of population.  An estimated 4.5 million people, mainly from N. Africa, Mid.East, West Africa and up to 150,000 French. Mosques.
There are 8 “Grand Mosques” in France, 120 mosques accommodating 200-1,000 people each, and more than 1,000 places of worship.
The relatively small number of mosques, given such a large Muslim population, is due to the fact that a large percentage of the Muslims are non-practising.  Also, those who came as migrant workers in the 60s and 70s didn’t expect to stay permanently, giving them no need to build special places for worship.  
Ministers
There are about 500 Imams in France, though only 4% are French citizens. 

JEWS
Membership
1.1% of the population are Jewish.  700,000 people form the largest Jewish community in Europe and the 4th largest in the world.  22% practise their faith.
Synagogues
There are 200 Synagogues in France, as well as 60 Jewish schools.
Ministers
There are 100 Rabbis in France. 

CULTS
Membership
There are an estimated 120,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in France. Their membership has been in decline since 1998. There is also a small number of Mormons.  
Cults have been a particular target of the French government and press in recent years, especially those perceived to engage in mental manipulation.  A new law is currently in preparation to limit the activities of cults in France.
Evangelical churches and Christian organisations are sometimes classified as cults by the government. Consequently they sometimes find themselves subject to investigations and discriminatory pressures. 

OCCULT
Interest
About half of the French population believe in faith healing, with one quarter putting their faith in clairvoyants or astrology.  An estimated 10 million people pay around £20 billion for occult consultations, three times the amount paid to their family doctors.
Spiritual Healers/Mediums
There are over 30,000 registered Mediums and Spiritual Healers in France.