Very interesting summary of research and statistics on Christianity in the world
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 8:14PM My friend, the missiologist, Steve Hayes posted some interesting commentary on the research of the Pew forum on Christianity across the globe. This makes for some fascinating reading - in short Christianity is the world's largest faith group, most Christians come from 10 countries across the world, Catholic and Orthodox Christians make up about 2/3 of all Christians (Protestants and Independents make up about 37%).
I spotted one error in the article - in the section where it talks about the location of Christians in Africa it mistakenly says that all of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa, which they are not.
This research (as with all research) is a 'lag indicator' as we learnt at business school - in other words, it is a report that sheds light on the state of Christianity at some point in the past. However, I did didn't see any comment on the fastest growing regions in the world. From the research that I have read in 'The Next Christendom - The comong of Global Christianity' (2011, Philip Jenkins) it would seem that the Christian faith is growing fastest in the two thirds world. Particularly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Still, these are some very interesting statistics on the state of Global Christianity. You find the source article here.
These are some of the key findings of a new report released by the Pew Research Center, called Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population, which provides data on the world's Christian population by region, country and tradition.
• Almost half (48 percent) of all Christians live in the 10 countries with the largest number of Christians. Three of the top 10 are in the Americas (the United States, Brazil and Mexico). Two are in Europe (Russia and Germany); two are in the Asia-Pacific region (the Philippines and China); and three are in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia), reflecting Christianity's global reach.
• Christians are diverse theologically as well as geographically. About half are Catholic. Protestants, broadly defined, make up 37 percent. Orthodox Christians comprise 12 percent of Christians worldwide. Other Christians, such as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, make up the remaining 1 percent of the global Christian population.
• Taken as a whole, Christians are by far the world's 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.
• Although Christianity began in the Middle East-North Africa, that region today has both the lowest concentration of Christians (about 4 percent) and the smallest number of Christians (about 13 million) of any major geographic region.
• Although Christians comprise just under a third of the world'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.
• Nigeria now has more than twice as many Protestants (broadly defined to include Anglicans and independent churches) as Germany, the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation.
• About 90 percent of Christians live in countries where Christians are in the majority; only about 10 percent of Christians worldwide live as minorities.
