Netherlands
| Population 16,805,000 | Catholic 26% |
| No Professed Religion More than 50% | Evangelical 4% |
Overview
The Kingdom of the Netherlands consists of twelve provinces in North-West Europe and several islands in the Caribbean. The European portion of the Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. The capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam, and its seat of government is in The Hague. About twenty percent of the country (both in area and population) is located below sea level, and fifty percent of its land lies less than one meter above sea level. This fact contributes to the country’s name: Nederland (Dutch) or “Low Country.” In 2011, the Netherlands had the tenth-highest per capita income in the world, and its economy ranked seventeenth out of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. In May 2011, the Netherlands was rated the "happiest" country according to results published by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).
Despite the Netherlands’ glorious history of religious liberty and mission, Christianity there has reached an all-time low. More than fifty percent of Dutch people claim no religious affiliation, and only twenty percent attend church with any regularity. The attendance in traditional Protestant churches has declined from sixty percent in 1900 to eighteen percent in 2010. As a result, the younger generation is swept up in a tide of secularism, materialism, rampant immorality, false spirituality, and hopeless nihilism. Only four percent of the population claims affiliation with an Evangelical church, and overall growth is less than one percent annually. Compare this with six percent of the population claiming affiliation with Islam, which is growing at an annual rate of 2.3%. There are also many mega-mosque building projects throughout the country.
Sources: Wikipedia and Operation World
HeartCry Missionary
Jacques Brunt
Itinerant Preacher - Alblasserdam, Netherlands
Jacques T. Brunt is an itinerant preacher, teacher, and evangelist in the Netherlands. He was born in 1979 and converted to Christianity in 2000. He is the youngest of... read more