Norway’s official statistics agency says the country’s Catholic community has added tens of thousands of members in recent years while the state Lutheran Church is declining.

Statistics Norway said on Friday that the number of Catholics had jumped 42 per cent since 2012, to 145,000 this year.

Membership in Islamic groups also rose by 32 per cent to 148,000 in the same period.

The statistics showed Norway’s tiny Jewish community had just 770 members at the start of 2016.

The changes reflect Norway’s growing diversity amid migration from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

The Lutheran Church’s own statistics show it lost nearly 37,000 members in 2015. It remains Norway’s biggest religious group, with 3.8 million members, about 73 per cent of the population.

Christianity arrived in Norway in the year 900 with Anglo-Saxon missionaries.

Source: catholicherald.co.uk