Pew Research Center’s most recent comprehensive global estimate counts about 2.3 billion Christians in 2020, representing 28.8% of the world’s population. Christianity remained the world’s largest religious group, although its share of the global population declined from 2010 to 2020.
What is the latest comprehensive global count?
Pew’s 2025 report, based on more than 2,700 censuses, surveys, population registers, and other sources, estimates 2.26886 billion Christians in 2020. For normal reporting, that figure is appropriately rounded to about 2.3 billion.
The same study estimated that Christians made up 28.8% of the global population in 2020, down from 30.6% in 2010. The number of Christians still grew by about 122 million during the decade, but the world population grew faster.
Where do most Christians live?
Christianity is geographically dispersed compared with several other major religions. In 2020, the largest share of the world’s Christians lived in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean and then Europe. This distribution marks a major historical shift from the early twentieth century, when Europe contained a much larger share of global Christianity.
How many countries have Christian majorities?
Pew estimated that Christians formed a majority in 120 of the 201 countries and territories included in its 2020 study. That was four fewer than in 2010. The United Kingdom, Australia, France, and Uruguay all fell below a Christian majority during the decade.
Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and other Christians
The word Christian includes many churches and movements. Roman Catholicism is the largest single Christian communion. Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches preserve ancient episcopal and liturgical traditions. Protestant Christianity includes Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, evangelical, and many independent churches.
Counting these traditions separately is more difficult than estimating Christianity as a whole because denominational definitions, membership systems, and census questions vary by country.
Why older estimates may be different
Articles often quote figures such as 2.4, 2.5, or 2.6 billion Christians by projecting beyond the latest census-based global benchmark. Such projections can be useful, but they should be labeled clearly. For a directly comparable worldwide estimate, Pew’s 2020 dataset is currently the strongest recent benchmark.
