Percentage of Born Again Believers in the World

A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 2.eighteen billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing near a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are likewise geographically widespread – and so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.

A century ago, this was not the instance. In 1910, almost 2-thirds of the world's Christians lived in Europe, where the bulk of Christians had been for a millennium, according to historical estimates past the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.² Today, only about a quarter of all Christians live in Europe (26%). A plurality – more than a third – now are in the Americas (37%). Nearly one in every four Christians lives in sub-Saharan Africa (24%), and about one-in-viii is found in Asia and the Pacific (13%).

The number of Christians around the world has about quadrupled in the last 100 years, from about 600 million in 1910 to more than 2 billion in 2010. Just the globe'south overall population as well has risen rapidly, from an estimated ane.viii billion in 1910 to half dozen.9 billion in 2010. Every bit a event, Christians make up virtually the same portion of the globe'due south population today (32%) as they did a century ago (35%).

This apparent stability, nevertheless, masks a momentous shift. Although Europe and the Americas however are home to a majority of the world's Christians (63%), that share is much lower than information technology was in 1910 (93%). And the proportion of Europeans and Americans who are Christian has dropped from 95% in 1910 to 76% in 2010 in Europe equally a whole, and from 96% to 86% in the Americas as a whole.

At the same time, Christianity has grown enormously in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, where in that location were relatively few Christians at the beginning of the 20th century. The share of the population that is Christian in sub-Saharan Africa climbed from 9% in 1910 to 63% in 2010, while in the Asia-Pacific region information technology rose from iii% to 7%. Christianity today – unlike a century ago – is truly a global religion. (Encounter globe maps weighted by Christian population in 1910 and 2010.)

These are some of the key findings of Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World'south Christian Population, a new study by the Pew Enquiry Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life.

The report is based primarily on a country-by-state assay of about 2,400 information sources, including censuses and nationally representative population surveys. For some countries, such as Red china, the Pew Forum'due south estimates also take into account statistics from church groups, authorities reports and other sources. (See Appendix C [PDF] for more than details on the range of estimates available for China.)

Christians are diverse theologically as well equally geographically, the new study finds. About one-half are Catholic. Protestants, broadly divers, make up 37%. Orthodox Christians comprise 12% of Christians worldwide. Other Christians, such as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, make up the remaining i% of the global Christian population. (Run across Defining Christian Traditions.)

Taken as a whole, however, Christians are by far the world'due south largest religious group. Muslims, the second-largest group, make up a little less than a quarter of the world's population, according to previous studies by the Pew Forum.³

Well-nigh one-half (48%) of all Christians live in the ten countries with the largest number of Christians. Three of the top ten countries are in the Americas (the United States, Brazil and United mexican states). Two are in Europe (Russian federation and Germany), ii are in the Asia-Pacific region (the Philippines and China), and 3 are in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Congo-kinshasa and Ethiopia), reflecting Christianity's global reach.

Conspicuously, Christianity has spread far from its historical origins. For example:

• Though Christianity began in the Middle East-North Africa, today that region has both the   lowest concentration of Christians (nigh four% of the region's population) and the smallest   number of Christians (about 13 million) of whatsoever major geographic region.
• Indonesia, a Muslim-majority state, is dwelling house to more Christians than all xx countries in   the Middle Due east-North Africa region combined.
• Nigeria at present has more than twice as many Protestants (broadly defined to include Anglicans   and independent churches) equally Frg, the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation.
• Brazil has more than twice as many Catholics as Italian republic.
• Although Christians incorporate just nether a third of the globe's people, they form a majority of the population in 158 countries and territories, about two-thirds of all the countries and territories in the world.
• About 90% of Christians live in countries where Christians are in the bulk; only about ten% of Christians worldwide live as minorities.

Global Distribution of Christians

So where are the bulk of the world'south Christians today? The Pew Forum study suggests at least four possible answers, depending on how one divides upward the world:

The Global South

In recent years, a number of scholarly books and articles have discussed the rapid growth of Christianity in the developing countries of the "Global South" – especially Africa, Asia and Latin America – and debated whether the influence of Christians in the "Global N" is waning, or not.^iv A century ago, the Global North (normally defined equally North America, Europe, Commonwealth of australia, Nihon and New Zealand) contained more than four times as many Christians as the Global S (the rest of the world).^five Today, the Pew Forum written report finds, more than than one.three billion Christians live in the Global Southward (61%), compared with about 860 million in the Global North (39%).

The Global North

But fifty-fifty though Christians are more numerous in the Global S, the concentration of Christians is much higher in the Global North, where 69% of the population is Christian. By dissimilarity, 24% of the people living in the Global Due south are Christian. This reflects the fact that the total population of the Global South is about 4.5 times greater than the population of the Global North.

Another way of looking at the distribution of Christians around the world is by region. Numerically, at least, Europe no longer dominates global Christianity the way it did 100 years ago. Rather, the bulk of Christians are in:

The Americas

Of the world's 5 major geographic regions, the Americas take both the largest number and the highest proportion of Christians. More than a third of Christians worldwide (37%) live in the Americas, where near nine-in-10 people (86%) are Christian. The three countries with the largest Christian populations – the United States, Brazil and Mexico – are in the Americas. Together, these iii countries alone business relationship for nearly one in every four Christians in the earth (24%), nearly the aforementioned proportion as the whole of Europe (26%) and all of sub-Saharan Africa (24%). Although Christians brand upwards a smaller portion of the 2010 population in the Americas (86%) than they did in 1910 (96%), the Americas account for a higher share of the world's Christians (37%, upwards from 27% in 1910).⁶

Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia-Pacific

But sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region now take a combined population of well-nigh 800 1000000 Christians, roughly the same as the Americas. And 5 of the tiptop x countries with the largest Christian populations are either in Africa (Nigeria, Autonomous Republic of the congo and Ethiopia) or Asia (Philippines and Prc). Moreover, the fastest growth in the number of Christians over the past century has been in sub-Saharan Africa (a roughly 60-fold increment, from fewer than 9 one thousand thousand in 1910 to more than 516 million in 2010) and in the Asia-Pacific region (a roughly ten-fold increase, from well-nigh 28 million in 1910 to more than than 285 million in 2010).

How Estimates Were Generated

The Pew Forum, in consultation with demographers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, acquired and analyzed about two,400 data sources, including censuses and full general population surveys, to arrive at Christian population figures for 232 countries and self-administering territories – all the countries and territories for which the Un Population Division provides overall population estimates. (See Appendix A [PDF] for a more detailed explanation of how the estimates were made; meet Appendix D [PDF] for a listing of information sources by country.)

In many countries, however, censuses and surveys do non contain detailed data on denominational and religious movement affiliations. Christian organizations remain in many cases the only source of data on the size of global movements within Christianity (such every bit evangelicalism and pentecostalism) and on Protestant denominational families (such equally Baptists and Methodists). The figures in this report on pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical Christians and on Protestant denominational families were commissioned by the Pew Forum from the Middle for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., whose researchers generated estimates based in large office on figures provided by Christian organizations around the world. Readers should bear in mind that these breakdowns were derived differently from the overall Christian population estimates.

According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, there are nigh 279 1000000 pentecostal Christians and 305 million charismatic Christians worldwide. (Charismatic Christians belong to non-pentecostal denominations yet engage in spiritual practices associated with pentecostalism, such equally speaking in tongues and divine healing; see Defining Christian Movements.)

In addition, more than 285 one thousand thousand Christians tin can exist classified every bit evangelicals because they either belong to churches affiliated with regional or global evangelical associations, or because they identify as evangelicals. Since many pentecostals and charismatics are also evangelicals, these categories are not mutually exclusive. (For more details, come across Christian Movements and Denominations.)

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Footnotes:

ii Historical figures throughout the executive summary are courtesy of Todd M. Johnson of the Heart for the Report of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. Johnson is co-editor of the Atlas of Global Christianity, Edinburgh University Press, 2009. (return to text)

iii As of 2010, there were about 1.half dozen billion Muslims worldwide, representing 23.4% of the global population. For more than details, see the Pew Enquiry Heart's Forum on Religion & Public Life, The Future of the Global Muslim Population: Projections for 2010-2030, January 2011, and Pew Research Eye's Forum on Religion & Public Life, Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population, October 2009. As noted in the preface of this written report, the Pew Forum is gradually compiling baseline population estimates and projecting future growth rates for the globe's major faiths. (return to text)

4 See, for example, Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford Academy Press, 2002; Robert Wuthnow, Boundless Faith: The Global Outreach of American Churches, University of California Printing, 2009; and Mark A. Noll, The New Shape of Earth Christianity: How American Feel Reflects Global Religion, InterVarsity Press, 2009. (return to text)

five This common definition of Global North and Global South is not a elementary geographic division of the world into Northern and Southern hemispheres. Rather, information technology takes into business relationship levels of economic development likewise equally geography. Figures for 1910 are from a Pew Forum assay of data from the Eye for the Study of Global Christianity. (return to text)

half-dozen Figures for 1910 are from a Pew Forum assay of information from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. (render to text)

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Source: https://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/

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