On Wednesday I posted some eye-catching numbers from the latest data on the free churches of Sweden. It’s not good. But what about in the capital? Here’s what the survey revealed.

• Between 2015 & 2020 33 churches were planted and 34 closed.
• If you look across the entire 20-year period we see that 84 churches closed down while 137 were started. That’s +53 in the number of churches over the last 20 years. Grace Church is one of those.
• Stockholm is one of just three regions in Sweden to see an increase in the number of churches in the last two decades.
• However in 2000 there was one church for every 9,698 people and in 2020 there is one church for every 10,008 people. In other words the growth of the city is outpacing the growth of the church. By comparison in the country as a whole there is one free church for every 4,716 people. This shows that Stockholm is still relatively under-represented.
• The growth in churches in Stockholm is matched by a growth in overall numbers from 30,344 to 35,581 over 20 years. That’s a not exactly stunning growth of 260 people per year. At 17.3% that’s on par with the the early church.
• However in the past 5 years that number has dropped 1%.
• That means that 1.3% (a decline of 10.6%) the population is a member of one of the free churches. That means the number of people in Stockholm regularly hearing the Gospel is probably less than 1%.
• Stockholm has 53 churches in decline, 118 holding steady and 31 growing.
• The average size of a church in Stockholm has dropped from 161 in 2000 to 149 in 2020.
• The growth of the church in Stockholm is almost entirely due to migration. From 12 with 1443 people to 52 migrant churches with 4972 people in 20 years.

In other words the church in Stockholm is largely evangelistically ineffective and is only growing due to international migration that is bringing Christians to Sweden and primarily the large cities. So, for now, Christians who care about there being a church in Sweden in the future should be solidly pro-immigration.