There are between 800 million and 1 billion Protestants worldwide,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][a] among approximately 2.5 billion Christians.[10][1][11][12][b] In 2010, a total of more than 800 million included 300 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 260 million in the Americas, 140 million in Asia-Pacific region, 100 million in Europe and 2 million in Middle East-North Africa.[2] Protestants account for nearly forty percent of Christians worldwide and more than one tenth of the total human population.[2] Various estimates put the percentage of Protestants in relation to the total number of the world's Christians at 33%,[5] 36%,[13] 36.7%,[2] and 40%,[3] while in relation to the world's population at 11.6%[2] and 13%.[8]
Changes in worldwide Protestantism over the last century have been significant.[3][7][22] Since 1900, Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America.[23][8][22] That caused Protestantism to be called a primarily non-Western religion.[7][22] Much of the growth has occurred after World War II, when decolonization of Africa and abolition of various restrictions against Protestants in Latin American countries occurred.[8] According to one source, Protestants constituted respectively 2.5% of South Americans, 2% of Africans, and 0.5% of Asians in 1900.[8] In 2000, these percentages had increased to 17%, more than 27%, and 5.5%, respectively.[8] According to Mark A. Noll, 79% of Anglicans lived in the United Kingdom in 1910, while most of the remainder were found in the United States and across the British Commonwealth.[7] By 2010, 59% of Anglicans were found in Africa.[7]China is home to the world's largest Protestant minority.[2][c]
The United States is home to approximately 20% of Protestants.[2] According to a 2019 study, Protestant share of U.S. population dropped to 43%, further ending its status as religion of the majority.[34][35][36] The decline is attributed mainly to the dropping membership of the Mainline Protestant churches [35][37] and even among Evangelical Protestant churches[38][39] while Black churches are relatively stable or continue to grow.[35]
According to Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States, a review of American Nobel prizes winners awarded between 1901 and 1972 by Harriet Zuckerman, 72% of American Nobel Prize laureates came from Protestant backgrounds.[40] Overall, Protestants have won a total of 84.2% of all the American Nobel Prizes in Chemistry,[40] 60% in Medicine,[40] 58.6% in Physics,[40] between 1901 and 1972.
By 2050, some project Protestantism to rise to slightly more than half of the world's total Christian population.[41][d] Hans J. Hillerbrand projects Protestants will be as numerous as Catholics.[42]
According to Mark Jürgensmeyer of the University of California, popular Protestantism[e] is the most dynamic religious movement in the contemporary world, alongside the resurgent Islam.[43]
Evangelicals, Charismatics, Neo-charismatics and other revivalists are found virtually across every Protestant branch. Nondenominationals, various independents and Protestants from other denominations, not easily fitting in the traditional classification, are also taken into account.
Estimates of total Protestant population vary considerably. Most reliable sources claim a range of 800 million to more than 1 billion. Difficulties occur as there is no consensus among scholars which denominations should be considered Protestant.
The seven regions considered in the following table are the six traditional ones (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Oceania), plus Middle East (i.e. countries with Islamic majority from the Mediterranean to Iran).
The following are summary tables of the numbers and percentages of Protestants in each region. Also included are the percentages of Protestants in the world that reside in that region ("% of Protestant total").
^Most current estimates place the world's Protestant population in the range of 800 million to more than a billion. For example, author Hans Hillerbrand estimated a total Protestant population of 833,457,000 in 2004,[9] while a report by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary - 961,961,000 (with inclusion of independents as defined in this article) in mid-2015.[1]
^Current sources[which?] are in general agreement[citation needed] that Christians make up about 33% of the world's population—slightly over 2.4 billion adherents in mid-2015.
^Estimates for China vary in dozens of millions. Nevertheless, in comparison to the other countries, there is no disagreement that China has the most numerous Protestant minority.
^Protestant, Independent and Anglican parties are understood as Protestant as stated previously in the article, as well as in the book: Statistics for the P, I and A megablocs are often combined because they overlap so much-hence the order followed here.
^A flexible term; defined as all forms of Protestantism with the notable exception of the historical denominations deriving from the Protestant Reformation.
^ abcdefJay Diamond, Larry. Plattner, Marc F. and Costopoulos, Philip J. World Religions and Democracy. 2005, page 119. link (saying "Not only do Protestants presently constitute 13 percent of the world's population—about 800 million people—but since 1900 Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.")
^Gregory A. Smith, "About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated," Pew Research Center, 2021/12/14.
^David Brooks, "The Dissenters Trying to Save Evangelicalism," The New York Times, 6 February 2022, 4-5. Brooks notes the following: "In 2005, 23% of Americans were white evangelical Protestants, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. By 2020, that share was down to 14.5%. By 2020, 22% of Americans 65 and older were white evangelical Protestants. Among adults 18-29, only 7% were."
^ abcdHarriet Zuckerman, Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States New York, The Free Press, 1977, p.68: Protestants turn up among the American-reared laureates in slightly greater proportion to their numbers in the general population. Thus 72 percent of the seventy-one laureates but about two thirds of the American population were reared in one or another Protestant denomination-)
^Hillerbrand, Hans J., "Encyclopedia of Protestantism: 4-volume Set", p. 1815, "Observers carefully comparing all these figures in the total context will have observed the even more startling finding that for the first time ever in the history of Protestantism, Wider Protestants will by 2050 have become almost exactly as numerous as Roman Catholics - each with just over 1.5 billion followers, or 17 percent of the world, with Protestants growing considerably faster than Catholics each year."
^"Statistik Umat Menurut Agama di Indonesia" (in Indonesian). Kementerian Agama Republik Indonesia. 15 May 2018. Archived from the original on 3 September 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2020. Muslim 231.069.932 (86.7), Christian 20.246.267 (7.6), Catholic 8.325.339 (3.12), Hindu 4.646.357 (1.74), Buddhist 2.062.150 (0.77), Confucianism 117091 (0.03), Other 299617 (0.13), Not Stated 139582 (0.06), Not Asked 757118 (0.32), Total 237641326
^Harriet Sherwood, "Church in crisis as only 2% of young adults identity as C of E" https/www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/07/church-in-crisis-as-only-2-of-young-identify-as-c-of-e
^"In US, Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace, Pew Research Center, 17 October 2019.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2015.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Religion in Venezuela (see pag 41-42)
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