Belgian Adult Baptisms Hit a Nine-Year High
While marriages, funerals, and first Communions fall, 689 adults are already registered for the 2026 Easter Vigil—triple the number a decade ago.
The Belgian bishops’ conference has released its ninth annual report on the life of the Church in Belgium, covering the year 2025. Adult baptisms reached their highest level in nine years even as most other sacramental and pastoral indicators continued to decline.
In 2025, 534 adults received baptism, up from 362 in 2024 and from 229 in 2016—an increase of 172 from the previous year. The bishops note that the upward trend is expected to continue. In February the bishops announced that 689 people were registered for baptism at the 2026 Easter Vigil, a figure described as triple that of a decade earlier.
Other Sacraments and Practice
By contrast, parishes recorded 27,666 baptisms of all ages in 2025. First Communions numbered 29,073, a 4.7 percent drop from 30,523 in 2024. Religious marriages fell from 4,896 to 4,122 (−15.8 percent). Church funerals declined from 35,515 to 31,743 (−10.6 percent), representing 31.4 percent of deaths registered in the country.
On the third Sunday of October, the statistical reference date, 155,084 people attended Mass. Attendance at the Easter Vigil or Christmas Day reached 388,096.
Clergy and Vocations
The report counts 3,262 priests in Belgium: 1,603 diocesan and 1,659 religious, of whom 299 serve in parishes. Four men were ordained to the priesthood in 2025. There were 28 seminarians, 20 of them Belgian. Permanent deacons numbered 306, with seven ordinations during the year and 15 candidates in formation.
The overall picture remains one of fewer people receiving the sacraments each year. The sustained rise in adult baptisms, however, stands out in the bishops’ figures as a concrete sign of hope and of the continuing call to announce the Gospel.