[Click here for a YouTube video on key denominational variations]
Christian denominations can roughly be divided into three major categories: Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox. There are about 2.4 billion Christians in the world. Of these, about 1.2 billion are Roman Catholic, about 900 million are Protestant, and about 300 million are Eastern Orthodox.Protestants are further divided into more specific denominations such as Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist. A Venn diagram of Christian denominations is shown in the figure below.

The number of members of different Christian denominations is somewhat elusive, but general approximations can be made. I have assembled some rough estimates based on the websites listed at the bottom of this post. In terms of major divisions, the breakdown is as follows:
| Denomination | Members | % |
| Roman Catholic | 1,285,000,000 | 47.6% |
| Protestant | 920,000,000 | 34.1% |
| Eastern Orthodox | 356,000,000 | 13.2% |
| Anglican/Episcopal | 110,000,000 | 4.1% |
| Other | 29,000,000 | 1.1% |
| TOTAL | 2,700,000,000 | 100.0% |
A further breakdown of the “Protestant” Category is as follows:
| Denomination | Members | % |
| Baptist | 100,000,000 | 10.9% |
| Lutheran | 80,000,000 | 8.7% |
| Reformed | 70,000,000 | 7.6% |
| Methodist | 70,000,000 | 7.6% |
| Adventist | 22,300,000 | 2.4% |
| Pentecostal | 280,000,000 | 30.4% |
| Nondenominational | 90,000,000 | 9.8% |
| African Initiated | 60,000,000 | 6.5% |
| Chinese Initiated | 25,000,000 | 2.7% |
| Other | 122,700,000 | 13.3% |
| Total | 920,000,000 | 100.0% |
These tables are based on the following websites:
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/christian-denominations-by-the-numbers.html

Leave a Reply