POPULATION

Christian statistics: The following list shows the countries with the largest numbers of Christians. Christianity, as defined for the purpose of census and surveys, includes all those who claim to be Christian. This includes varying degrees of religious activity, from essentially non-participating but still-nominal Christians to active full-communicants and life-long clergy. These numbers also include adherents of different divisions within Christianity, including Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, African Indigenous Churches and others.

Top 10 Largest National Christian Populations

Source for these Christian statistics: Ash, Russell. The Top 10 of Everything, DK Publishing, Inc.: New York (1997), pg. 160-161; December Advance Newsletter, 1996, Kainos Press; Adherents.com.

NOTE: There are many countries where very high percentages (95 to nearly 100%) of the population are Christians. There are so many, and they represent such a wide range of difficult-to-compare compositions in terms of activity, membership in European state churches, affiliation, etc., that it would be difficult to create a meaningful top 10 list of countries with the highest percentages of Christians. Please refer to the full Adherents.com for such information.

Major Branches

Major Denominational Families of Christianity
(This table does not include all Christians. These numbers are estimates, and are here primarily to assist in ranking branches by size, not to provide a definitive count of membership.)

NOTE: Division into denominational families offers a more detailed look at the composition of Christianity as a whole, but can be misleading. Among Protestants today, most significant divisions with regard to culture, practice and doctrine are not between denominational families, but between Liberal and Conservative Protestants.

Since the 1940s, one of the most important distinctions Christians have written about is between Evangelical and non-Evangelical Christians. At the denominational level, the Evangelical branch of Christianity is roughly equivalent to the Conservative Protestants, including Pentecostals. But both sociologists and Christian writers usually assign non-historical and non-denominational parameters to "Evangelical", defining the term primarily in theological and behavioral terms. Based on such criteria, sociologists have sometimes even included as "Evangelicals" many people not usually considered Protestant, such as Latter Day Saints and "born-again Catholics".

The variety of terms applied to different divisions and movements among conservative American Protestants can be confusing. Some of the most important and widely used are: born again Christians, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Charismatics and Fundamentalists. These terms frequently overlap or are defined differently by different writers.

It is beyond the scope of this page to fully describe major divisions in conservative Protestantism, but the following definitions from an article by Harvey Cox for The Atlantic Monthly (Nov. 1995) are useful:

- "Born-again" is the broadest category. It includes the 39 percent of the American population who claim they have had a personal experience of Christ. Their political ideas span the spectrum, and Jimmy Carter is not the only born-again political liberal.

- "Evangelical" describes a theological position, one recognizing not only the need for such a personal experience with God but also the unique religious authority of Scripture and an obligation to share one's faith with others. Billy Graham is the paradigmatic evangelical.

- "Fundamentalists," though they share many of the evangelicals' beliefs, also fiercely insist on the "verbal inerrancy" of the Bible, and this has led them into noisy conflicts over creation and evolution. William Jennings Bryan, who defended a literal reading of Genesis at the famous Scopes "monkey trial" in 1925, was a classic fundamentalist.

- Pentecostals, by far the fastest-growing wing of Christianity today, share most evangelical beliefs, but for them all theology is secondary. What is most important is an immediate encounter with the Holy Spirit in a style of worship that is exuberant and even ecstatic. Aimee Semple McPherson was the first Pentecostal preacher to achieve celebrity status in America.

- "Charismatics" (the word's root means "gift of grace") are people who practice a Pentecostal form of worship but remain in their own Catholic or Protestant churches.

Significant Sociologically Distinct Branches of Christianity

The list of branches shown below represents an attempt to be less arbitrary, showing major branches between which there are real differences with regard to culture, practice, doctrine, and history. Given these criteria, this list is more subjective than a listing of denominational families, which was primarily based on historical considerations only. Once again, the numbers are estimates. The boundaries between some of these groups are somewhat blurry (such as between some Pentecostal and Conservative Protestant groups).

* Liberal Protestants: A recent development in the United States has been the formal ecumenical movement marking increased cooperation among a number of long-separated liberal-to-moderate Protestant denominations. Currently a significant part of this unification of this branch of Protestantism is the "Churches United in Christ" agreement, which will create a network of denominations which share ministries and recognize one another's churches and share in Communion. Currently the combined membership of this movement is 17 million, representing about 7% of U.S. Christians, or about 12% of affiliated Christians in the U.S. [Article.]

* Anglicans are clearly distinct from Liberal Protestants in history, polity and liturgy. Anglicans, however, exhibit extreme ecumenical tendencies and in some countries have forged formal communions or outright mergers with Liberal Protestants. Anglicans are often grouped with Liberal Protestants in studies of a strictly sociological nature. Positions on political issues, voting patterns, educational/vocational demographics, etc. tend to be similar between the two groups.

* Quakers: Classification of Quakers into functionally meaningful "branches" of Christianity is difficult. Certainly the Quaker faith and witness arose from a Protestant background and Quakerism is correctly classified today as Protestant. But it is not as simple to group Quakers as "Conservative Protestant" or "Liberal Protestant." Like many other historical denominatinal families (Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc.), different Quaker denominations, and even congregations, are clearly either Liberal or Conservative with regards to many issues. But, although embracing certain degrees of ecumenicalism, Quakers nevertheless have maintained denominational identity which exceeds that of most other Protestant denominations. Various innovations by founder George Fox, including distinctive forms of Quaker worship (Meetings, "gathering", etc.), emphasis on Inner Light, as well as the pacifistic stand against violence in all forms, including self defense, all serve to heighten Quaker identity. Quakers still exhibit separate expressions of art and culture. So while "Lutheranism", "Presbyterianism", "Methodism", "Congregationalism", etc. are no longer sociological significant categories for most purposes, "Quakerism" still is and will continue to be so into the forseeable future. Those interested in this topic may find appreciate A Certain Kind of Perfection: An Anthology of Evangelical and Liberal Quaker Writers (edited by Carolyn Wilhelm, Margery P. Abbott).

Source: www.adherents.com