STATE OF THE FAITH 2025
Facing reality and the future of Germanic Paganism
Introduction
There is definite power in being opaque in reporting population estimates and sort of what your “manpower” is. It’s usually best to claim to be bigger than you are, and act like you are, working in sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. For outsiders it makes us appear more common, and for those part of our thing it boosts morale.
This kind of thinking is a siege mentality, applicable more for those at war than any kind of honest religious undertaking. Growth is essential and any kind of delusion or misunderstanding of where we’re at is detrimental. How can you understand how things are going without actually assessing the current state of things. On the surface you see big players doing good stuff but that doesn’t track with the overall field.
This article is our attempt to take stock of where we’re at in 2025. This is not in any way meant to be a scientific endeavor in census taking, nor to be some sort of blackpilling adventure. We simply want transparency and honesty to the best we can. Blanket claims of massive growth of our specific branch we believe are misleading, and we want to explain this further.
Our goal here is thus: We want to present “hard” numbers of our faith, analyze the challenges we face, and strategize for the future. This is our State of the Faith 2025.
The Numbers: Where We Actually Stand
We are going to take this step by step. We are a niche, of a niche, of a niche, of a niche. Religious, Pagan, Germanic Pagan, and Traditional Germanic Pagan. We will begin explaining the current estimated size of the Pagan demographic in the United States. We are no researcher but we have a good few sources to back up our claims and estimates from here on out. Remember in the US as well the formal government census does not track religion so there are no official federal sources.
Paganism
This label covers a major swath of various faiths, eclectic beliefs, and new-ageisms. We fall under this umbrella. All Germanic Pagans are Pagans but not all Pagans are Germanic Pagans. As you’ll see there is one major grouping here that pads out the figures and is what normally is claimed as the “major growth” of Paganism in the US and other countries.
The major source for religious census data is the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study. Conducted in 2007, 2014, and 2023-2024 it is the biggest study of it’s kind in the US covering the religious landscape of our country. At ~36,900 respondents statistically as a research study it actually only faces an about 0.8% margin of error. This makes it one of the best representations of what currently is going on in religion in the United States.
The only issue really with the Pew Study is it’s lack of granularity, obvious as we’re in a super-niche they aren’t going to try and categorize the thousands of eclectic beliefs that’d fall under their New-Age/Pagan umbrella.
Nevertheless their results for each time period is clear, .3% fall under New Age/Pagan the figure has been steady (nonetheless growth based on the population growth.) Roughly 900k in 2007, 954k in 2014, 1 million in 2023-2024. Fantastic right, massive growth and hefty numbers?
Germanic Paganism
Generally when these larger studies perform religious censuses Germanic Pagans do respond but they fall into massive pockets like the New Age/Pagan. Where then can we look for further details?
Actual censuses that dig this deep into a niche are extremely rare. The biggest we can find is one called the Worldwide Heathen Census of 2013. It logged 7,878 responses from the United States specifically out of 16,700 entries across the world. Considering it isn’t a probabilistic survey like the Pew one (basing populations based on chances,) but rather self-reporting it’s extrapolation to a final figure isn’t as clear. Common scholarly consensus like those from Jeffrey Kaplan and others put the figure based on this result at 10,000 in the US then in 2013.
Working from this as we have near figures as a whole in 2014 from the Pew study and 2013 specific figures we can now approach a percentage. Based on known figures we see that of the New Age/Pagan category, 1% of this grouping is therefore Germanic Pagan. That means Germanic Pagans are therefore 1% of .3% of the United States population, or .003%.
That means today based on the Pew Study and projecting from prior focused censuses we come to a population spread right now (conservatively) at 1,050,000 New Age/Pagan practitioners, and 10,500 Germanic Pagans in the United States. Understand that these are conservative figures as we’re working with scant evidence. We’ll provide our final ranges at the end of this explanation.
Where is the growth coming from then? These are extremely small figures. It is in the Wiccans and other New Age practitioners. This is where the “Pagan” growth is occurring in the United States and in the world. This tracks with their nature as well, little to no doctrine, little to no rules, little to no basis on anything at all meaning anyone can declare today they are a Wiccan or whatever without any effort. It’s popularity among the radical left and feminist leaning groups explain it’s growth as well near a political/cultural rebellion from the Christian majority. The Pew study shows the political beliefs of the New Age/Pagan heading at only 10% as “conservative.”
But wait there’s more! We are in an additional niche here, those who’ve been around the Pagan scene understand a picture of the typical Germanic Pagan and it isn’t those who would fall in the description of Traditional Germanic Pagan.
Traditional Germanic Pagans
Now lets cover those who would fall under Traditional, Folkish, or at basic Right-Leaning Germanic Pagans. Those who don’t fit the stereotype of the Marvel worshipper, consumerist, pseudo-Wiccans.
The prior mentioned Worldwide Heathen Census also took note of folkish beliefs. They put the figure at 29.5%, rounding we get around 3,000 Folkish Germanic Pagans in 2013. The only other figure we know is actually thanks to the AFA, at their peak they had nigh 1,000 members (lower today,) representing a major portion of the Folkish Germanic Pagan population in the US.
This then means that for the 2013 figures (then extrapolating further,) that Traditional Germanic Pagans 30% of 1% of .3% of the United States population or .001% of the population. Niche of a niche of a niche of a niche. This puts a conservative figure of traditional Germanic Pagans at 3,500 people in the United States as of today. Considering the known AFA figures, and sizes of current other groups and events this isn’t too hard to believe.
Conclusions
Here then is our estimated ranges based on the data we’ve considered.
Pagans
Low End - 0.2% of the population - 700,000
Mid End - 0.3% of the population - 1,050,000
High End - 0.4% of the population - 1,400,000
Germanic Pagans
Low End - 0.002% of the population - 7,000
Mid End - 0.003% of the population - 10,500
High End - 0.006% of the population - 21,000
Traditional Germanic Pagans
Low End - 0.0005% of the population - 1,750
Mid End - 0.001% of the population - 3,500
High End - 0.002% of the population - 7,000
To be fair we will temper this with the acknowledgement that true figures are few and far between outside a few scant censuses and some base conclusions. Nevertheless we have to work with what we have to reach some form of idea, otherwise there is no idea of where we are right now today. We think our conclusion represents the fairest reckoning of our figures today, and paints a clear image of the field.
The Hard Truths: Challenges We Must Face
We are not mainstream, nowhere even close. This comes with some hefty challenges and things we need to expect. Germanic paganism is an extremely small niche, Traditional Germanic paganism is microscopic. When interacting with non-Pagans expect what amounts to disbelief or near zero knowledge of anything that we know to be common sense. We are an alien (but natural and default but they don’t know that) faith to the common man.
What specifically has caused this picture to occur? These figures might not surprise you but they were definitely lower than what we expected. Understand that the people we have punch very high above their weight, we produce much, hit hard, and we exist in pseudo-echo chambers inherently due to our desire for interaction with likeminded folk. The international nature of the revival also bolsters our perception with British and other Germanic European countries making us seem bigger.
Note that at the end of the day growth has been big nevertheless, just that our numbers are still astronomically small. Guesses from the 90’s put US practitioners in potential sub 1,000 figures. This is a testament to those who came before us and laid the groundwork. This will not occur overnight, but we need to be aware of where we’re at and the chokepoints to growth from here on out.
We see two major issues (which we have discussed in prior posts) to growth that will forever limit us to fractions of fractions of percentages.
Recruitment and Retention
Dedicating to a new faith, especially with much of the populace being agnostic, atheist, or irreligious of various stretches. Materialism, and a dead spiritual atmosphere and mindset dominate the popular culture. Religion isn’t “cool” like it was therefore it becomes subsumed by other pursuits. Religion isn’t easy either (due to many reasons we’ll elaborate on) but it should be. If you wanted to be a Christian today we guarantee you could find a kind soul who’d get you in gear and started same day, you’d fit in like a puzzle piece. Christianity for all the doom and gloom is actually stable in the US over the years and its due to its inherent ease of joining, generally good image, and mainstream appeal. Christians are fairly open (too much in their universalism,) but they allow slips, they are an open door and allow those who wish to check things out to try. If they fail in dedicating themselves to the faith they will always be there if they come back.
Our faith and the environment that it lives in exists in a hostile environment. We believe our worst enemy outside the image issue, far-left dominance, and obscurity is ourselves. Gatekeeping and elitism is the death knell of any burgeoning revival. Don’t get us wrong, a core foundation is necessary, any kind of “thing” needs it’s strong elite creating, producing, and outputting culture for the layman. But this cannot be the detriment to the whole. Right now we generally have a closed garden. Those in already established groups have their hidden and secret practices, and stick to themselves rarely venturing out or doing much of any outreach.
We are not a missionary religion, but we do need new people. Sure birthing new generations of followers work, look at the Mormons and Amish to see this work out. But that isn’t all they’ve done, the Amish have had generations upon generations to get where there at and have their share of problems. The Mormons always reach out to others on top of their demographic plans.
On top of that our faith is alien to the common man, basic ideas like fatalism, cosmology, myth, basic religious practice, let alone more complex apologetics like differential ontology and the ancestral principal (read Imperium Press’s works,) are effectively like trying to decipher ancient Mayan texts by a child who can’t even read yet. Theres the expectation and excuse (it needs to die TODAY) that our faith is one with homework, this is the completely wrong path. It’s a cop out and a “oh no there’s nothing I can do about it” lie peddled to avoid having to explain and elaborate on basic concepts. Of course we should expect some simple efforts, but this isn’t what is out there.
Our faith should be (and literally can be) practicable day one, with maybe 10-15 minutes of explanation of what to do and following up from there with some basic recommended reads. Anything beyond this is gatekeeping slop that is the chokehold on our growth. Again the comparison to the Christians applies here. If one asked a practicing Christian “how can I begin today?” any of them worth their salt would be able to explain briefly, give a basic starting prayer, and recommend readings letting them begin today and keep some momentum. In turn they’d follow up and help them out.
We’ve literally seen in forums and chats people asking for help in how to pray because their loved one is sick or dying and NO ONE RESPONDED. Hilariously a Christian provided two prayers for them to try out! A new convert incoming. This is religion 101 and if we’ve seen this more than once it’s occurring a lot. If we were some newcomer seeing this we’d immediately go “these are just some poser LARPers and this isn’t a real religion.” We hate to be so blunt but we are failing as a religious revival as a whole if this kind of thing keeps occurring. If you yourself don’t have patience to teach really basic stuff to people that’s fine, stay out of the way though as otherwise you are actively harming the faith.
We need teachers, we need patience, we need those who understand the core truths and what basic praxis looks like out there teaching and explaining. We live in unprecedented times for such a revival, disillusioned masses with no heading looking for something, unstable political times with people looking for stability. We are the generation fated to do this, we need to act on this.
Worrying over quality is a fair concern, look to the wider Wiccan/New-Age masses, but the gut reaction against turning into such things also has gone too far into something detrimental. There needs to be a balance of openness and strict procedure.
Material
We are not producing enough. Those who have, have done fantastic but we need more. We need more teachers, scholars, culture creators, writers, programmers, everything. This doesn’t happen without more people, paradoxically we don’t get more people if we don’t get out there more. People need to know we are a punchy alternative to the modern disillusionment.
Where are our books of prayers, apologetics, beginners texts, children’s books? We wrote our own beginners guide PRAXIS as all of the various beginners guides to our faith didn’t even broach praxis, from McNallen’s Asatru to other various groups guides it wasn’t there (we’ve read a lot.)
People are trying no doubt, we love all we’ve seen there is a wonderful breadth of stuff out there already punching miles above our weight class (considering our small numbers.) It makes us happy to see the immense efforts already ongoing today, but much more is required by all.
We need books in hands of newcomers, QR code scannable material that is a snappy 2 minute read of what this is, posters, pamphlets, cards, whatever. We have an advertising problem and an image problem. Access to beginner material needs to be ready within seconds of an opportunity, religious discussion is rare if it ever occurs and those of us engaging need to be ready and active on pouncing. The amount of effort that goes into political work today should be mirrored by those of us in the religious revival, maybe not outright missionary work but we need to be out there not just building our walled gardens.
We need to be doing active work, active events with small portions open to the public, participating in local community work, leading by example. We will not grow by singularly doing insular group activities and never interfacing with the greater locale. Your town should know of your group and understand them to be good, we should all strive to be paragons approachable and well learned enough to explain to anyone what exactly are we. We ourselves plan on working on this once we move into our new area, small towns and close knit communities can be great for this. Our work writing and blogging is culminating on this and we intend to write on our efforts once we get there.
The Path Forward: What Needs to Be Done
We’ve already covered much of the what needs to be done but we will reiterate here succinctly as a gameplan to follow.
We need to drop any delusions and acknowledge reality. We are small, we are microscopically small, this is a problem. Accepting the problem is the first path to fixing it. We need to remove any misconceptions as growth is inevitable no matter what we do, it occurs via concerted specific actions focusing on growth itself.
The faith needs to be accessible to people rapidly and comprehensively. Hiding practice, hiding basic truths and concepts helps no one, it makes us look fake and unserious “How do I do X?” with no response is equivalent to us saying we don’t know and don’t give a fuck. Basic practices being not available immediately gives the same impression. We need more guides for beginners, basic foundational praxis laid out, and continue community building but focusing on outsiders as well.
We need to encourage teaching concurrent with other efforts. We grow via simplicity, patience, and understanding.
We need to find the balance between authenticity, seriousness, and outreach, and growth. Focus too much on one or the other leads to stagnation or drift of the tradition. Currently the focus in the traditional sphere is on authenticity (which is admirable) but has been to the detriment of outreach and spread. Both activities need to be pursued simultaneously.
We need more creators and contributors. There are already a fantastic gamut of writers, podcasters, and more but we need a lot more. Everything from art, theology, music, fiction, games, utilities, structures, whatever we need more of it all. If you have a hobby turn it to the faith’s ends. Personal praxis while important to onboarding is key, but to have a true culture living past our lifetime we need to produce the tradition itself. If you already aren’t you should be living your faith, if you write for fun write things related to the faith, if you program make a game related to the faith, if you knit knit patterns related to the faith and culture. On top of this it allows you to monetize your hobby and aids to cultural growth and outreach.
The Time for Action is Now
We are small, one out of 100,000, but this does not mean we are doomed. It means our vanguard needs to act deliberately, focused, and with the purpose of intentional growth. Internal cultivation is fantastic and we have excelled here, but external outreach has been terrible comparably.
Growth requires specific actions tailored to the growth itself. As said before the internal cultivation and growth of existing structures does not do anything for external growth except it catches a few already interested stragglers. Outward growth requires a pseudo-missionary like approach. We have an image and advertising problem. We can guarantee the majority don’t even know a damn thing about us not that they don’t want to join us. The populations are ripe for the taking of the faith to exert itself and prove itself to be sleek, approachable, and coherent.
We are trying for our part and others are already well ahead here. We suggest those of you reading who are similarly minded to turn your hobbies towards the faith. Learn and see if you have a teaching mindset. Those in established settings seek external outreach and an advertising mindset. We need numbers, otherwise what use is all of our efforts?