Religion in World > > Christianity
Christian Population in World 2023
Christianity is an Abrahamic religion and It is the world’s largest religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories.
The United States has the largest Christian population in the world, followed by Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and the Philippines. Americas has the largest percentage of the Christian population, about 37% of the global Christan population lives in North and Latin America. About a quarter of all Christians live in Europe (26%), about one in every four Christians lives in sub-Saharan Africa (24%), and about one in eight is found in Asia and the Pacific (13%).
Christianity is the predominant religion and faith in Europe (including Russia), the Americas, the Philippines, East Timor, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Oceania. There are also large Christian communities in other parts of the world, such as Indonesia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and West Africa where Christianity is the second-largest religion after Islam.
The United States is the country with the Largest Christian population in the world. It has an estimated 252 million people who adhere to Chrisanity. With a 185 million Christain population, Brazil is in second place followed by Mexico (118 million). The Philippines with a 102 million Christian population is in 4th place closely followed by Russia (101 million) in the fifth spot.
Three African nations are in the Top 10 i.e Nigeria (96 million) at 6th; DR Congo (81 million) at 7th and Ethiopia (62 million) at 9th position. China (72 million) is in 8th position and Germany (53 million) is at 10th position.
Let’s have a Top 100 countries in the world by the Christian population.
| Rank | Country | Est. Christian Pop. 2020 | % of Total Country Pop. |
| 1 | United States | 252,870,000 | 75.48% |
| 2 | Brazil | 185,430,000 | 88.11% |
| 3 | Mexico | 118,570,000 | 94.10% |
| 4 | Philippines | 102,320,000 | 92.36% |
| 5 | Russia | 101,900,000 | 72.91% |
| 6 | Nigeria | 96,080,000 | 46.94% |
| 7 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 81,520,000 | 95.84% |
| 8 | China | 72,410,000 | 5.21% |
| 9 | Ethiopia | 62,610,000 | 61.93% |
| 10 | Germany | 53,190,000 | 66.04% |
| 11 | Italy | 48,720,000 | 80.84% |
| 12 | Colombia | 48,150,000 | 92.31% |
| 13 | Kenya | 44,460,000 | 84.48% |
| 14 | South Africa | 43,530,000 | 80.78% |
| 15 | Uganda | 39,390,000 | 86.08% |
| 16 | Tanzania | 38,740,000 | 63.05% |
| 17 | United Kingdom | 38,020,000 | 59.12% |
| 18 | France | 37,940,000 | 58.14% |
| 19 | Argentina | 37,420,000 | 85.38% |
| 20 | Ukraine | 36,860,000 | 85.58% |
| 21 | Spain | 36,410,000 | 75.23% |
| 22 | Poland | 35,120,000 | 92.54% |
| 23 | India | 33,800,000 | 2.44% |
| 24 | Peru | 31,420,000 | 95.44% |
| 25 | Venezuela | 29,540,000 | 89.49% |
| 26 | Indonesia | 26,930,000 | 10.20% |
| 27 | Canada | 24,280,000 | 66.43% |
| 28 | Madagascar | 23,200,000 | 84.73% |
| 29 | Ghana | 22,330,000 | 73.57% |
| 30 | Angola | 22,190,000 | 90.46% |
| 31 | Romania | 20,320,000 | 99.46% |
| 32 | Zambia | 17,510,000 | 97.44% |
| 33 | Guatemala | 17,360,000 | 95.33% |
| 34 | Malawi | 17,280,000 | 83.40% |
| 35 | Mozambique | 16,760,000 | 57.79% |
| 36 | Cameroon | 16,750,000 | 69.59% |
| 37 | Chile | 16,380,000 | 88.35% |
| 38 | Ecuador | 15,490,000 | 93.99% |
| 39 | Australia | 15,090,000 | 61.72% |
| 40 | South Korea | 15,000,000 | 30.07% |
| 41 | Rwanda | 13,230,000 | 93.83% |
| 42 | Zimbabwe | 12,720,000 | 87.06% |
| 43 | Bolivia | 11,120,000 | 94.00% |
| 44 | Ivory Coast | 10,690,000 | 43.96% |
| 45 | Haiti | 10,040,000 | 86.93% |
| 46 | Dominican Republic | 9,930,000 | 88.03% |
| 47 | Greece | 9,850,000 | 87.56% |
| 48 | Portugal | 9,370,000 | 90.44% |
| 49 | Burundi | 9,180,000 | 91.07% |
| 50 | Papua New Guinea | 8,390,000 | 99.17% |
| 51 | Netherlands | 8,070,000 | 47.36% |
| 52 | Vietnam | 8,070,000 | 8.38% |
| 53 | Honduras | 7,950,000 | 87.46% |
| 54 | Hungary | 7,680,000 | 79.26% |
| 55 | South Sudan | 7,530,000 | 60.48% |
| 56 | Paraguay | 7,390,000 | 96.85% |
| 57 | Serbia | 7,040,000 | 91.55% |
| 58 | Austria | 6,720,000 | 78.32% |
| 59 | Belarus | 6,650,000 | 70.67% |
| 60 | Cuba | 6,610,000 | 58.86% |
| 61 | Belgium | 6,590,000 | 60.51% |
| 62 | Sweden | 6,210,000 | 62.98% |
| 63 | Chad | 6,040,000 | 41.12% |
| 64 | Benin | 6,010,000 | 52.26% |
| 65 | El Salvador | 5,870,000 | 88.01% |
| 66 | Nicaragua | 5,710,000 | 85.35% |
| 67 | Bulgaria | 5,580,000 | 80.99% |
| 68 | Switzerland | 5,530,000 | 70.00% |
| 69 | Burkina Faso | 4,930,000 | 21.71% |
| 70 | Costa Rica | 4,780,000 | 90.70% |
| 71 | Central African Republic | 4,770,000 | 88.99% |
| 72 | Denmark | 4,640,000 | 81.83% |
| 73 | Slovakia | 4,640,000 | 83.60% |
| 74 | Ireland | 4,590,000 | 89.82% |
| 75 | Liberia | 4,480,000 | 86.15% |
| 76 | Republic of the Congo | 4,480,000 | 86.99% |
| 77 | Egypt | 4,440,000 | 4.68% |
| 78 | Finland | 4,280,000 | 77.68% |
| 79 | Eritrea | 4,230,000 | 62.85% |
| 80 | Norway | 4,230,000 | 81.66% |
| 81 | Kazakhstan | 4,130,000 | 23.10% |
| 82 | Burma (Myanmar) | 4,040,000 | 7.78% |
| 83 | Croatia | 4,010,000 | 93.26% |
| 84 | Panama | 3,720,000 | 92.54% |
| 85 | Georgia | 3,690,000 | 87.44% |
| 86 | Puerto Rico | 3,660,000 | 96.57% |
| 87 | Pakistan | 3,260,000 | 1.57% |
| 88 | Moldova | 3,260,000 | 97.31% |
| 89 | Armenia | 3,180,000 | 98.45% |
| 90 | Malaysia | 3,140,000 | 9.41% |
| 91 | Togo | 3,070,000 | 42.29% |
| 92 | Lithuania | 2,820,000 | 90.10% |
| 93 | Namibia | 2,600,000 | 97.38% |
| 94 | New Zealand | 2,540,000 | 52.81% |
| 95 | Lesotho | 2,310,000 | 97.06% |
| 96 | Sudan | 2,280,000 | 5.38% |
| 97 | Jamaica | 2,270,000 | 77.47% |
| 98 | Czech Republic | 2,210,000 | 20.93% |
| 99 | Japan | 2,190,000 | 1.76% |
| 100 | Uruguay | 1,990,000 | 57.02% |
* 119 more countries with more than 10000 Christian populations
Source: Pew Research Center
List of Christian denominations
The three largest groups of Christians are the Catholic Church, Protestantism, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The largest Christian denomination is the Catholic Church, with 1.3 billion baptized members. The second largest Christian branch is Protestantism (900 million), followed by the Eastern Orthodox Church (220 million) in third place.
Other Christian groups include Oriental Orthodoxy (62 million), Latter Day Saints/Mormonism (17 million), Jehovah’s Witnesses (8.7 million), and Church of East (0.6 million).
Top Countries by Catholics
Catholicism is the largest branch of Christianity with 1.345 billion, and the Catholic Church is the largest among churches. The communion of churches comprises the Latin Church (or the Roman or Western Church) as well as 23 Eastern Catholic Churches.
As per the estimates Brazil had the world’s largest Catholic population, followed by the Mexico and Philippines.
| Country | Catholic total | % Catholic |
| Brazil | 115,500,000 | 55% |
| Mexico | 101,200,000 | 80% |
| Philippines | 85,470,000 | 80% |
| United States | 69,640,000 | 20.8% |
| Italy | 44,300,000 | 75% |
Top Countries by Protestants
Protestantism is the second largest major group of Christians by the number of followers. Estimates vary from 800 million to 1 billion, or between 31% and 38% of all Christians. As Protestantism is not homogeneous; rather, it is divided into many traditions and denominations, so its difficult to access calculate the exact protestants population around the world.
The largest Protestant denominational families were historically Pentecostal denominations (10.8%), Anglican (10.6%), Lutheran (9.7%), Baptist (9%), United and uniting churches (unions of different denominations) (7.2%), Presbyterian or Reformed (7%), Methodist (3.4%), Adventist (2.7%), Congregationalist (0.5%), Brethren (0.5%), The Salvation Army (0.3%) and Moravian (0.1%). Other denominations accounted for 38.2% of Protestants.
The United States is home to approximately 20% of Protestants and is the largest country by the number of Protestants. It’s followed by Nigeria(75 million) and Brazil (43 millions)
| Country | Protestant | % Protestant |
| United States | 155,600,000 | 46.6% |
| Nigeria | 75,000,000 | 37.70% |
| Brazil | 43,000,000 | 22.20% |
| China | 39,970,000 | 2.90% |
| South Africa | 36,814,500 | 72.90% |
Top Countries by Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy (or Eastern Orthodox Christianity) is one of the three main branches of Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. If Protestanism denominations are counted separately, Eastern Orthodox Church is the second-largest Christian communion in the world and numbers approximately 220 million.
Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant religion in the world’s largest country, Russia (77%), where roughly half the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians live. The religion is also heavily concentrated in the rest of Eastern Europe, where it is the majority religion in Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Greece, and other neighboring countries.
| Country | Eastern Orthodox total | % Eastern Orthodox |
| Russia | 104,000,000 | 72% |
| Ukraine | 29,800,000 | 72.70% |
| Romania | 16,321,389 | 81.10% |
| Greece | 9,380,749 | 90% |
| Belarus | 7,788,254 | 83.30% |
| Serbia | 6,079,395 | 84% |
| Bulgaria | 4,374,135 | 59.4% |
| Kazakhstan | 4,300,000 | 23.9% |
| Moldova | 3,158,015 | 93.3% |
| Georgia | 3,097,312 | 83.4% |
Top Countries by Oriental Orthodoxy
The Oriental Orthodox Churches are a group of Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with a total of approximately 60 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are composed of six autocephalous churches: the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
The majority of Oriental Orthodox Christians live in Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Syria, Turkey, and Armenia, with smaller Syriac communities living in Western Asia.
| Country | Oriental Orthodox population | (%) Oriental Orthodox |
| Ethiopia | 47,353,560 | 43.8% |
| Egypt | 10,309,500 | 10-12% |
| India | 3,800,059 | 0.4% |
| Armenia | 2,796,519 | 92.6% |
| Eritrea | 2,530,000 | 47% |
| Syria | 1,800,400 | 8% |
Top Countries by Latter Day Saint
The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.
It has mainly two groups The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the Community of Christ. LDS churches have 98% of adherents and the Community of Christ has the remaining 2%, Collectively its followed by 16 million people around the world.
| Country | Members | % LDS |
| United States | 6,763,019 | 2% |
| Mexico | 1,498,296 | 1.16% |
| Brazil | 1,456,238 | 0.67% |
| Philippines | 833,045 | 0.76% |
| Peru | 624,569 | 1.94% |