As the world’s most populous religion, more than 2.3 billion people around the world follow the teachings of Christianity in its various forms. Christianity has been around in some form since the first century, and despite many changes in society, the religion continues to have an incredible amount of influence in its followers’ lives. As of 2019, Christianity is the largest religion in the world, accounting for 31.2 percent of the world’s population, followed by Islam at 24.1 percent. Looking at this from another perspective, more than seven out of every 10 people who practice a religion in the world are Christians.
Christianity has a large variety of adherents in different forms. Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy are the main three branches of Christianity. Roman Catholicism is the largest single denomination with about 1.29 billion members, followed by Protestantism with about 900 million members, and Eastern Orthodoxy with about 250 million members. Other Christian denominations such as Anglican, Baptist, Reformed, and Lutheran have an additional over 200 million members combined.
Beyond these numbers, data from the World Christian Database show that 82.2 percent of Christians live in the global south where it is mostly concentrated in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. While the share of Christians in Europe and North America is decreasing, there is still a very large number of believers in these regions. In the United States, despite the declining number of Christian adherents, 69 percent of the population still identifies as Christian. Additionally, Europe is still predominantly Christian although the numbers have decreased since the last century.
Christianity has been around in some form since the first century, though its teachings and interpretation have evolved significantly over the years. It is believed that Christianity first spread through Europe and its rise to a global religion is mainly due to the Roman Empire’s adoption of it as the official state faith. Since then, it has experienced a resurgence in recent decades due to various social, political, and economic reasons. Missionaries from different countries have also played an important role in the spread of Christianity, bringing the religion to the far corners of the world.
Over time, Christianity has had an immense impact on society and continues to be a major force in the world today. From impacting people’s values and beliefs, to religious hol
