List of Christian denominations by number of members

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This is a list of Christian denominations by number of members. 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.

World Christianity by tradition in 2011 as per Pew Research Center[1]
  1. Catholic (50.1%)
  2. Protestant (36.7%)
  3. Eastern Orthodox (9.40%)
  4. Oriental Orthodox (2.50%)
  5. Other (1.30%)

The list includes the Catholic Church (including Eastern Catholic Churches), Protestant denominations with at least 200,000 members, the Eastern Orthodox Church (and its offshoots), Oriental Orthodox Churches (and their offshoots), Nontrinitarian Restorationism, independent Catholic denominations, Nestorianism and all the other Christian branches and denominations with distinct theologies or polities.

Christianity is the largest religious group in the world, with an estimated 2.3 to 2.6 billion adherents in 2020.[2][3][4][5]

Christian denominational families

The various denominations of Christianity fall into several large families, shaped both by culture and history.

Christianity arose in the first century AD after Rome had conquered much of the western parts of the fragmented Hellenistic empire created by Alexander the Great. The linguistic and cultural divisions of the first century AD Roman Empire with, broadly speaking, a Latin West and a Greek East, but also with significant areas in North Africa where Coptic was the dominant language, and areas in the Near East where Syriac or Aramaic was the dominant language, were reflected in the early Christian church. The church was called "Catholic" meaning "universal" from very early in the second century, a tacit acknowledgement of the many different cultures it encompassed.

Early Christianity suffered great, although intermittent, persecution from the state until Emperor Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, legalizing Christianity. Shortly after the cessation of persecution, the Church had the luxury of reflecting on the meaning of its own teachings for the first time. Significant disputes arose, particularly over the nature of Christ and the relationship between Christ, the Father, and the Spirit. The Church chose to address those disputes with Ecumenical councils, the first four of which were at Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon. The first two of these councils, the First Council of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople gave birth to the Nicene Creed which has become the touchstone for Christian beliefs.

Both of the next two Councils, the Council of Ephesus, and the Council of Chalcedon led to significant ruptures in the Church. Many Christians espousing the minority position at these two councils, even after extensive discussion and attempts at reconciliation, chose to strike out on their own, rather than to accept the positions held by the majority of the church fathers at the councils.

The Church of the East, encompassing the Syriac speaking Christians in Sasanian-occupied Mesopotamia and far-eastern border regions of the Roman Empire, began to break contact with the Christians in the Roman Empire due to political pressure from the Persians as well as disagreements following the Council of Ephesus after 431AD.

In 451 AD, after the Council of Chalcedon, the group that later became known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches, encompassing many Coptic speaking Christians in North Africa, also split off.

In 1054 AD, an accumulation of misunderstanding, disrespect, political pressures, and genuine theological differences led to the Great Schism, dividing Greek-speaking Christians who became the Eastern Orthodox, from Latin-speaking Christians who kept the name Catholic, but increasingly prefaced it with the adjective "Roman".

Beginning in 1517, the western, Latin-speaking church was itself rent asunder by the Protestant Reformation, with many Christians rejecting papal authority and organising together in new ways. Broadly speaking, Protestantism has four streams: Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anabaptism, and Anglicanism. While all of these Christian groups have their own subsequent splits, the fragmentation in Protestantism has been relatively extreme, with hundreds of denominations. However, many of these independent churches still belong to broader Protestant traditions.

Some of these fragmented groups, particularly among the Eastern churches, have sought to return or reestablish communion with the Catholic Church, and have reunited themselves under papal authority.

Major denominational families in Christianity:
This box:
Schism (1552)
(16th century)
(Not shown are ante-Nicene, nontrinitarian, and restorationist denominations.)
Major branches and movements within Protestantism

Catholicism – 1.272–1.422 billion

Catholicism is the main branch of Christianity and the Catholic Church is the largest among churches. About 50% of all Christians are Catholics.[6][1] According to the annual directory of the Catholic Church or Annuario Pontificio of 2024, there were 1.390 billion baptized Catholics in 2022;[7][8][9] that was 1.422 billion in 2024. In 2025, the World Christian Database reported 1.272 billion Catholics.[6] That figure does not include independent denominations that self-identify as Catholic, numbering some 18 million adherents subscribing to Old Catholicism and other forms of Independent Catholicism.

Countries by total number of Catholics (2010)
A map of Catholicism by population percentage

Latin Church – 1.404 billion

Eastern Catholic Churches – 18 million

Source[10]

Canonically irregular groups

Sedevacantists

Main article: Sedevacantism

Protestantism – 0.800–1.1 billion

Countries by number of Protestants (2010)

Protestantism is the second‑largest major group of Christians by number of followers. In 2025, the World Christian Database reported 629 million historic Protestants, 409 million Independents, and 151 million unaffiliated Christians, collectively referred to as broad‑sense Protestantism.[19][6][20] Estimates vary from 628 million in the narrow sense to 1.2 billion in the broad sense, representing between 24% and 45% of all Christians.[21][6][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] The main reason for this wide range is the lack of a common agreement among scholars as to which denominations constitute Protestantism. For instance, most sources include Anabaptism, Anglicanism, Baptists and non-denominational Christianity as part of Protestantism. However, widely used references like the World Christian Encyclopedia, which has been documenting the changing status of World Christianity over the past 120 years, classifies Independent Christians or non-denominational Pentecostals as a separate category from Protestantism.[20][29][30] Moreover, Protestant denominations altogether do not form a single structure comparable to the Catholic Church, or to a lesser extent the Eastern Orthodox communion. However, several different comparable communions exist within Protestantism, such as the World Evangelical Alliance, the Anglican Communion, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Methodist Council and the Lutheran World Federation. Regardless, 900 million is the most accepted figure among various authors and scholars, and thus is used in this article. Note that this 900 million figure also includes Anglicans, Anabaptists, Baptists, as well as multiple other groups that might sometimes disavow a common "Protestant" designation, and would rather prefer to be called, simply, "Christian".[22] According to Mark Juergensmeyer of the University of California, "popular Protestantism" (that is to say all forms of Protestantism with the notable exception of the historical denominations deriving from the Protestant Reformation) is the most dynamic religious movement in the contemporary world, alongside resurgent Islam.[31]

Historical Protestantism – 400–600 million

The number of individuals who are members of historical Protestant Churches totals to 400–600 million.[n 1][32][n 2][33][n 3][6]

A map of countries that have a church that is a member of the Anglican Communion (blue),[dubious – discuss] the Porvoo Communion (green), comprising European Anglican and Lutheran churches, and the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches (red), a federation of Old Catholic Churches.

Anglicanism – 85–110 million

Sources[34][35]

There are 85–110 million Christians in Anglican tradition,[36][37][38] mostly part of the Anglican Communion, the third-largest Christian communion in the world, with 42 members (provinces).[39][40][41][42][34] When united churches in the Anglican Communion and the breakaway Continuing Anglican movement were not counted, there were an estimated 97.4 million Anglicans worldwide in 2020.[43]

Baptist churches – 51–110 million

Source[90]

The worldwide Baptist community numbers about 100 million.[91][92][93][94][95] However, the Baptist World Alliance, a world communion of Baptist churches, self-reports only 51 million baptized believers, as Baptists do not count children as members, since they believe in believer's baptism, nor do all Baptists participate in the Alliance.[94][92][93] Therefore, the BWA is the eighth-largest Christian communion.[96]

Lutheranism – 70–90 million

Number of Lutheran adherents by country:
  More than 10 million
  5 million-10 million
  1 million to 5 million
  500 thousand to 1 million
  100 thousand to 500 thousand
  25 thousand to 100 thousand
Further information: List of Lutheran denominations

The number of adherents in the Lutheran denominations totals to 70–90 million persons (the Lutheran World Federation reports 78 million and is the sixth-largest communion)[109] being represented in the following churches:[24][110]

Calvinism / Reformed churches – 85–100 million

Further information: List of Reformed denominations

The churches of the Reformed tradition (which includes the Presbyterians, Continental Reformed, Congregationalists, and Waldensians) together have about 70–80 million members. The United Churches of Reformed origin have about 36 million members.[33][148][149][150][151][152] the World Communion of Reformed Churches is one of the largest Christian communions, having 100 million members, considering only full members denominations.[153]

Methodism – 46–60 million

Methodism, including the Holiness Movement, has about 46 million members worldwide.[33][24][234] United Churches of Methodist origin have another 14 million members.[63][68][235][236] The World Methodist Council (WMC), with 39,8 million members is the ninth-largest communion.[237] Not all of the following churches are member churches of the WMC. The largest Methodist denomination, the United Methodist Church, had about 25 percent[238] of their churches disaffiliate between 2019 and 2023, some of whom joined the Global Methodist Church, thus figures for the two denominations are an ongoing process.

Adventism – 24 million

Restoration Movement – 4 million

Anabaptism – 4 million

Plymouth Brethren – 3.4 million

Hussites – 1.2 million

Quakers – 0.4 million

Worldwide distribution of Quakers by country in 2017 according to the Friends World Committee for Consultation:
  No data
  1–99
  100-999
  1,000–3,999
  4,000–9,999
  10,000–119,285

Shakers – 3

  • United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing[273][274]

Modern Protestantism – 400–500 million

The denominations listed below did not emerge from the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century or its commonly acknowledged offshoots. Instead, they are broadly linked to Pentecostalism or similar other independent evangelical and revivalistic movements that originated in the beginning of the 20th century.[275] For this reason, several sources tend to differentiate them from Protestants and classify them together as Independents, Non-core Protestants etc. Also included in this category are the numerous, yet very similar non-denominational churches. Nonetheless, most sources combine their numbers to the Protestant tally, while others do not since these churches do not self-identify with mainline Protestant traditions.[20][22][23] Despite the absence of centralized control or leadership, if considered as a single cohort, this will easily be the second largest Christian tradition after Roman Catholicism.[276][277][278] According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC), there are an estimated 450 million Independents world-wide, as of mid-2019.[279]

Pentecostalism – 200–280 million

Those who are members of the Pentecostal denomination number around 280 million people.[24]

Non-denominational Christianity – 35–50 million

African initiated churches – 45–60 million

60 million people are members of African initiated churches.[296]

Chinese Patriotic Christian Churches – 38 million

Source[303]

New Apostolic Church – 8 million

The New Apostolic Church has around 8 million members.[304]

Local churches – 1–10 million

Messianic Judaism – 0.3 million

Messianic Judaism has a membership of 0.3 million people.[305]

Eastern Protestant Christianity – 22 million

Eastern Protestantism, percentage by country

Eastern Protestant Christianity (or Eastern Reformed Christianity) encompasses a range of heterogeneous Protestant Christian denominations that developed outside of the Occident, from the latter half of the nineteenth century and yet keeps elements of Eastern Christianity, to varying degrees. Most of these denominations came into being when existing Protestant Churches adopted reformational variants of Eastern Orthodox liturgy and worship; while others are the result of reformations of Eastern Orthodox beliefs and practices, inspired by the teachings of Western Protestant missionaries.[306][307][308] Some Protestant Eastern Churches are in communion with similar Western Protestant Churches.[306][309] However, Protestant Eastern Christianity within itself, does not constitute a single communion. This is due to the diverse polities, practices, liturgies and orientations of the denominations which fall under this category.

Eastern Orthodoxy – 170- 220 million

A map of Eastern Orthodoxy by population percentage

Eastern Orthodox Christians account for 220 million worldwide.[315][316][317] Its main body consists of the various autocephalous churches along with the autonomous and other churches canonically linked to them, for the most part form a single communion, making the Eastern Orthodox Church the second largest single denomination behind the Catholic Church.[279][318][319][320][321][322] In addition, there are several Eastern Orthodox splinter groups and non-universally recognized churches.

Autocephalous churches – 170 million

Autonomous churches – 3.5 million

Non-universally recognised churches – 26 million

Non-canonical churches – 3 million

Other separated groups – 4 million

Oriental Orthodoxy – 70 million

A map of Oriental Orthodoxy by population percentage

The Oriental Orthodox Churches are those descended from those that rejected the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Despite the similar name, they are therefore a different branch of Christianity from the Eastern Orthodox (see above). There are an estimated 70 million Oriental Orthodox Christians worldwide.[362][363][364][365][366]

Autocephalous churches – 62 –70 million

Autonomous churches

Churches not in communion

Nontrinitarian Restorationism – 42–62 million

Distribution of other Christians

A sixth group is composed by Nontrinitarian Restorationists. These groups are predominantly unitarian and are quite distinct from orthodox Trinitarian restorationist groups such as the Disciples of Christ, despite some shared history.

Oneness Pentecostalism – 10–30 million

Source[386]

Latter Day Saint movement or Mormonism – 17 million

Jehovah's Witnesses – 9 million

Source[394]

Minor denominations – 6 million

Independent Catholicism – 19 million

Various denominations that self-identify as Catholic, despite not being affiliated with the Catholic Church.[399]

Assyrian churches – 0.6 million

A seventh group is composed of independent churches descended from the historic Church of the East. Internal crises beginning the 16th-19th centuries eventually resulted by 1830 in the original patriarchal line of the Church of the East (Eliya-line) becoming the heads of the Chaldean Catholic Church (an Eastern Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See formed in 1552), and the emergence of a separate patriarch presiding over a distinct Assyrian Church of the East.

The Assyrian Church of the East experienced a schism in 1964 following reform attempts at modernisation and other measures, resulting in the organisation of the Ancient Church of the East.

Binitarianism – 0.04 million

See also

References

Notes

External links

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