List of the largest Protestant denominations

Countries by number of Protestants in 2010

Countries by percentage of Protestants in 2010

This is a list of the largest Protestant denominations. It aims to include Protestant communions, federations, alliances, councils, fellowships, and other denominotional organisations in the world and provides information regarding the membership thereof. Shown here, they are divided into international transdenominational, international and national bodies with more than 100, 10 and 5 million members, respectively. It is inevitably partial and generally based on claims by the denominations themselves. The numbers should therefore be considered approximate and the article an ongoing work-in-progress.

The most numerous international bodies account for more than a half of worldwide Protestant population,^{[note 1]} while the most numerous national bodies account for more than 200 of the world's 800 million Protestants.^{[note 2][1]}

Some of these groupings cannot be considered churches in mainstream Protestant ecclesiology. For example, the Evangelical Church in Germany differs denominationally, encompassing Lutheran, Reformed and United subchurches.

Lists of the largest Protestant denominations

Transdenominational organisations

Transdenominational international bodies include people across all denominations that participate in a movement which goes way beyond their Protestant branch, like Evangelicalism, Charismatic movement, or Neo-charismatic movement.

The World Evangelical Alliance is so far the only transdenominational organization that operates internationally and brings together as many as 600 million Evangelicals.

Emblem	Name (& website)	Orientation	Foundation	Leadership	Headquarters	Region	Membership	Notes
	World Evangelical Alliance (worldea.org)	Evangelical	1846 Freemasons' Hall, London, England[2]	Secretary-General Efraim Tendero	New York City, United States	Worldwide	600,000,000[3]	Aims to unite Evangelicals worldwide.
	Porvoo Communion (porvoocommunion.org)	Anglican, Lutheran	1992 Porvoo Cathedral, Porvoo, Finland	Co-chairmen Bishop Peter Skov-Jakobsen, Archbishop Michael Jackson (bishop)		Europe	50,000 000[4]	Communion of Anglican and Lutheran denominations in Europe.

International bodies

International bodies tend to bring together only one Protestant grouping which shares common founders, tenets and history. Among the most sizeable international bodies are the Anglican Communion, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the World Methodist Council and the Lutheran World Federation – each with more than 70 million members.

Although there are national denominations that have a far larger membership than required to be on this list, like the United Methodist Church, the Apostolic Church or Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), they operate worldwide and cannot be considered alongside other national bodies like, for example, the Church of Christ in Congo, which operates solely in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Emblem	Name (& website)	Orientation	Foundation	Leadership	Headquarters	Region	Membership	Notes
	Anglican Communion (anglicancommunion.org)	Anglican	1867 Lambeth Conference, London, England	Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby	London, United Kingdom	Worldwide	85,000,000[5]	Brings together Anglicans from all over the world, and is the largest of such organizations.
	World Methodist Council (worldmethodistcouncil.org)	Methodist	1881	General Secretary Bishop Ivan M. Abrahams	Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, United States	Worldwide	80,500,000[6]	Brings together Methodists from all over the world, and is the largest of such organizations.
	World Communion of Reformed Churches (www.wcrc.ch)	Reformed	2010	General Secretary Chris Ferguson	Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany	Worldwide	80,000,000[7]	Brings together Calvinists from all over the world, and is the largest of such organizations.
	Lutheran World Federation (www.lutheranworld.org)	Lutheran	1947	General Secretary Martin Junge	Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland	Worldwide	74,000,000[8]	Brings together Lutherans from all over the world, and is the largest of such organizations.
	World Assemblies of God Fellowship (worldagfellowship.org)	Pentecostal	1988	General Superintendent and Chairman George O. Wood	Springfield, Missouri, United States	Worldwide	68,000,000[9]	Brings together a substantial Pentecostal population, although not the majority, as it is scattered in various independent Pentecostal denominations.
	Baptist World Alliance (bwanet.org)	Baptist	1905	General Secretary Neville Callam	Falls Church, Virginia, United States	Worldwide	37,000,000[10]	Brings together a substantial Baptist population, although not the majority, as it is scattered in various independent Baptist denominations.

National denominations

The Church of England, the Church of Christ in Congo, the Evangelical Church in Germany and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement constitute the most numerous national bodies with more than 20 million members each.

Emblem	Name (& website)	Orientation	Foundation	Leadership	Headquarters	Region	Membership	Notes
	Church of England churchofengland.org	Anglican	1534[note 3]	Supreme Governor Queen Elizabeth II Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby	London, United Kingdom	England	26,000,000[11]	The original denomination in England which broke off from the Roman Catholic Church following the controversy araising around the planned marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon. It is the largest Protestant denomination in the world, and the largest Anglican denomination.
	Church of Christ in Congo ecc.faithweb.com	Methodists Pentecostals Baptists Mennonites Reformed Evangelicals United Protestants[12]	1970	Bishop Pierre Marini Bodho	Kinshasa, Kinshasa Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo	Democratic Republic of the Congo	25,500,000[13]	Its creation was largely state-supported in order to organize all Protestants of the Democratic Republic of Congo in a single denomination. The second largest Protestant denomination in the world, and the largest United Protestant denomination.
	Three-Self Patriotic Movement	State-regulated theology various Protestants	1951	Shanghai, China	Chairperson Fu Xianwei Secretary General Xu Xiaohong	China	23,000,000[14]	It is the only Protestant denomination approved by the Chinese government. Its theology is regulated and controlled by the state.
	Assembleias de Deus www.adbelem.com.br	Pentecostal	1911	General Superintendent José Wellington Bezerra da Costa	São Paulo, State of São Paulo, Brazil	Brazil	22,500,000[15]	Fragmented into smaller units which together gather the vast majority of Brazilian Pentecostals. The largest Pentecostal denomination in the world.
	Evangelical Church in Germany ekd.de	Prussian United Lutheran Reformed	1948	Praeses of the Synod Irmgard Schwätzer Chairman of the Council of the EKD Heinrich Bedford-Strohm	Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany	Germany	22,300,000[16]	Postwar, renewed church confederation founded to bring all German Protestants under one umbrella. Earlier, the German Evangelical Church Confederation fulfilled that role during the Weimar Republic. If not considered a federation of churches, it is the third largest Protestant denomination in the world, the second largest in Europe, and the second largest United Protestant denomination.
	Born Again Movement	Evangelicals Charismatics Chinese house church	1968		Henan, China	China	20,000,000[17]	House church, not recognized by the Chinese government.
	Church of Nigeria www.anglican-nig.org	Anglican	1979	Primate of all Nigeria, Archbishop of Abuja Province Nicholas Okoh	Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria	Nigeria	18,000,000[18]	Local province of the Anglican Communion.
	Southern Baptist Convention www.sbc.net	Baptist	1845	President Dr. Ronnie Floyd	Augusta, Georgia, United States	United States	15,300,000[19]	The world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
	Church of Uganda churchofuganda.org	Anglican	1897	Archbishop of Uganda and Bishop of Kampala Stanley Ntagali	Namirembe Hill, Kampala District, Uganda	Uganda	11,000,000[20]	Local province of the Anglican Communion.
	Fangcheng Fellowship	Evangelicals Charismatics Chinese house church	1971			China	10,000,000[21]	House church, not recognised by the Chinese government.
	Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus www.eecmy.org	Lutheran	1959	Bishop Dr. Wakseyoum Idossa	Addis Ababa, Chartered city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Ethiopia	8,310,129[22]	The world's largest Lutheran denomination.
	China Gospel Fellowship	Evangelicals Charismatics Chinese house church				China	8,000,000[23]	House church, not recognized by the Chinese government.
	National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. www.nationalbaptist.com	Baptist	1880	President Dr. Jerry Young	Montgomery, Alabama, United States	United States	7,500,000[24]	The second largest Baptist denomination in the world. Its black church membership is largely African American.
	Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania www.elct.org	Lutheran	1963	Bishop Dr. Fredrick Onael Shoo	Arusha, Arusha Region, Tanzania	Tanzania	6,500,000[25]	The world's second largest Lutheran denomination.
	Church of Sweden svenskakyrkan.se	Lutheran	1593	Archbishop of Uppsala Antje Jackelén	Uppsala, Uppsala County, Sweden	Sweden	6,100,000[26]	The world's third largest Lutheran denomination, and the third largest Protestant one in Europe.
	Anglican Church of Kenya www.ackenya.org	Anglican	1970	Jackson Ole Sapit	Nairobi, Nairobi County, Kenya	Kenya	5,000,000[26]	Local province of the Anglican Communion.

See also

• Protestantism by country
• List of Christian denominations by number of members
• List of Christian denominations
• List of the largest Protestant churches in the USA
• List of religious organizations

References

Footnotes