List of Christian denominations by number of members
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Contents |
[edit] Christian denominational families
| Christian denominations |
|---|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -/========== Restorationism
/(Claim of separate lineage) /
/============ Protestantism
/ / \
/=====\======== Anglicanism
/ / \
Reformation / }====== Pentecostalism
/ (16th century)-> / /
Early Great Schism /========================= (Western Rites)
Christianity / (11th century)-> / } <-"Unia" Roman Catholicism
==================================={ /===================== (Eastern Rites)
Council of -> \ \ <-Council of \ /
Ephesus (431) \ \ Chalcedon (451) \========================= Eastern Orthodoxy
\ \
\ \========================================== Oriental Orthodoxy
\
\=========================================== Assyrian Church
of the East
Protestant denominations: Baptist, Calvinism, Lutheranism, Methodism, Congregationalism |
[edit] Largest denominations in the world
- Catholicism (including Eastern Rite Catholic Churches)- 1.1 billion
- Protestantism - 427 million
- Calvinist- 75 million
- Methodist - 70 million
- Baptist - 70 million
- Lutheran - 64 million
- Anabaptist
- Hussite and Moravian
- Christian Brethren (Open Brethren) - 1.85 million[1]
- Eastern Christianity - 297 million
- Eastern Orthodox - 225 million
- Oriental Orthodox - 72 million [Coptic: In Egypt 11 million, Abroad 4 million; Ethiopian 39 million (incl. abroad), Eritrian 2.5 million, Syriac 3.5 million (incl. Catholicosate of India (2.5 million), Armenian: In Armenia 3.0 million, Abroad 4 million, Indian (Church of the East 2.5 million)]
- Assyrian Church of the East - 0.5 million
- Pentecostalism - Estimates vary widely. The Royal Geographic Society estimates 105 million [citation needed]. The Penguin Concise Encyclopedia estimates "over 22 million" Pentecostals, as does the Cambridge Encyclopedia, while the Oxford Dictionary of World Religion estimates "at least 100 million".
- Claimed number of members of different Pentecostal groups are:
- Assemblies of God - 51 million
- New Apostolic Church - 11 million
- Kimbanguist Church - 8 million
- Church of God in Christ - 7 million
- The Pentecostal Mission - 6.7 million
- Apostolic Church - 6 million
- Church of God (Cleveland) - 5 million
- Christian Congregation of Brazil- 2.5 million
- Church of the Lord (Aladura) - 2.5 million
- Zion Christian Church - 2.5 million
- International Church of the Foursquare Gospel - 2 million
- Universal Church of the Kingdom of God - 2 million
- Calvary Chapel
- Anglican Communion/Episcopal - 73 million
- Restorationism - 30 million [citation needed]. Figures on this family are hard to assess, as some of the groups within the Restoration Movement subfamily have doctrinal objections to any authority or organization beyond the local congregation; for this reason, such groups do not have any kind of centralized record-keeping nor even an official delineation of which congregations are or are not part of the denomination.
- Seventh-day Adventists - 14 million
- Latter-day Saints - 12.5 million
- Restoration Movement - 4 million [citation needed]
- Church of Christ/churches of Christ (non-instrumental)
- Disciples of Christ/Christian Church
- Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ
- Nontrinitarian
- Unitarianism
- Christadelphians
- Jehovah's Witnesses - 6.6 million
- Iglesia ni Cristo - Perhaps 1.68 million [2]
- Oneness Pentecostals
- Quakers - 0.3 million
[edit] Largest denominations in the United States
- The 2002 Pew report puts the make-up of respective Christian denominations in the USA as a percentage of the total population as:
- 1) Protestantism (52%)
- 2) Roman Catholicism (24%)
- 3) Mormonism (2%)
- 4) Orthodoxy (1%)
(Total Christian population as a percentage of the population of the USA = 82%)
Many different branches of the Christian church have membership equalling less than 1% of the total US population, but since the Pew report only polled slightly over 2000 people, the sample is too small to estimate the sizes of these denominations. Therefore, saying that one small church is 'larger' than another is partially guesswork. Even though the sample size is not large enough to accurately differentiate between the respective sizes of some of the smaller churches, the Pew report does give a general picture of the make-up of Christian America in terms of the larger churches.
Source [3]
