The practice of Christianity in Korea has a relatively short history but, after a slow start, it has seen significant growth and high numbers of believers. The deeply-rooted traditional religions of Korean shamanism, Buddhism and Confucianism held strong for many centuries and have been challenged by Christianity in a meaningful way only since 1784, when the first Catholic prayer-house was established in Korea. Protestantism followed in 1884, but growth of both was slow until the middle of the twentieth century. Since then, a number of factors have encouraged the growth of Christianity in Korean culture, and its growth since the 1960s has been significant enough that the number of adherents to Christianity surpassed that of adherents to the traditional religions. The Korean church has not been entirely free of controversy, but it is still popular, despite recent trends of decline among Korean youth.