In the capital region the Evangelical Lutheran Church is being forced to rethink its economic situation and its values, as more and more residents part ways with the church. With the decreased funding through the church tax, the church should rethink what services it can offer to those who have left and reorganize its functions. Nearly all of the Helsinki congregations lost more than one percent of their members last year. 0.8 percent was the national average. 70.5 percent of people belonged to the Lutheran Church at the turn of the year in Helsinki as a whole. In the neighboring cities of Vantaa and Espoo, the corresponding figures were 74.5% and 77% respectively.