What percentage of the world's religious population is Christian?

Answer 1

Christianity has a significant number of followers and is certainly growing in China, but reliable figures are hard to obtain. Christian commentators seem to overstate the number of Christians in China, while the existence of some underground churches, in addition to the normal churches, means that not all Christians are officially counted.

Recently, I attempted to get an idea of the number of Christians in China from anecdotal evidence. I visited a city of around two million people in eastern China and confirmed that it had two official churches - one Catholic and one Protestant. The Catholic church could seat several hundred people, said to be 500 but perhaps around 700 if necessary, and holds three Masses each Sunday, but was far from full on the day that I visited it. The Protestant church was much smaller, but its numbers overflowed, with believers listening to the service outside on loudpseakers or in assembly rooms on television screens. Overall, I estimated that around three thousand Christians regularly attend Sunday services in this city. I then considered the issue of the underground churches. Naturally, I was unable to visit one, but I assumed that in order to grow, they would have to approach young people likely to consider the new religion. On enquiry, I elicited surprise that underground churches even existed, suggesting that the presence was small or that no serious attempt was being made to win converts.

In another medium-sized city, I visited the major public cemetery, where I could identify the graves of those interred within the last twenty years and the last ten years, as new areas are opened up. Of the several hundred gravestones I looked at, I found only three that were identifiably Christian. My assumption was that the dead no longer have anything to fear from the authorities and that their living relatives would want them to be identified as Christians if that were the case.

This was not a very scientific poll and did not address the possibility of greater penetration in, say, the south of China or among the poorly educated rural population. Neverthless, it tended to confirm my existing belief that the percentage of Christians in China is still fairly low.

Answer 2

This is difficult to say as there are many Christians in countries that persecute Christians and where many millions have to meet in secret. One such country is China where there are estimated to be over 100 million Christians, many of whom meet in secret.

Therefore there are estimated to be around 2.1 to 2.8 billion Christians in the world out of a population of around 6 billion, which puts the percentage from 35 - 45%.

Answer 3

If you combine Catholics, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox together, believe it or not I think its a solid 60%, the two biggest being Catholic and Orthodox believe it or not. Orthodox Christians in fact outnumber protestants, because of Russia and the Balkan's massive combined population, however they are not as numerous as Catholics, who can be found in most of Europe, pretty much the whole of Latin America, and throughout Africa.

Answer 4

Most sources put the number of Christian adherents at 31%-35% of the world's population. Such numbers are difficult to confirm as adherents include varying degrees of involvement with each faith,

Answer 5

33 pecent of the world is Christianity!!!!!

Answer 6

Imopssible to know for certain, but the rough figures tend towards about 30%.

Answer 7

About 1/3, or 33%