Primary Denominations of Christianity (wikipedia.com)
As an enthusiast of religious history and architecture I have visited many churches over the years. Many many churches. Churches of all ages and denominations. I estimate that over time I have probably made pilgrimages to hundreds of churches, perhaps more than five hundred. I have honestly lost count.
I was recently asked how many churches I have visited, and how many I intend to visit. And then a speculative question arose:
Exactly how many churches are there in the world?
To be clear, this was a reference to the number of church buildings, not the number of denominations or congregations. And honestly I had no real idea. There are currently between 2.3 and 2.5 billion Christians in the world, about a third of the total global population. While this includes many semi- and minimally active members, it begs the question, exactly how many church buildings would be needed to accommodate this entire number? I did the math, and estimating that a typical church could accommodate an average of around three hundred people at a time, that would mean there were around eight million church buildings on Earth.
I Googled the question “how many churches are there in the world” to see if I was close. It turns out, I wasn’t.
According to quora.com, the estimated number of church buildings accommodating Christian congregations is approximately 37 million. That’s one for every 65 people. The same website indicates that there are 34,000 Christian denominations in the world (we’ll get back to that in a bit).
Seems a bit high, but hey, who am I to question the World Wide Web?
The number in the United States, according to The Christian Post, is a more realistic 300,000. With an estimated 228.1 million Christians in the United States (including non-actives), that’s an average of 760 members per congregation. If this ratio is projected to the whole world, that gives us a much more down to earth figure of 3.1 million church buildings.
However, the United States is famous for its very large congregations, which could skew the numbers. This is especially true where megachurches are concerned, as these routinely have regularly attending congregations in the thousands.
Based on the above very rough analysis, I estimate that there are probably between eight and sixteen million church buildings in the world.
Which brings us to a logical follow-up question: How many denominations of Christianity are there in the world?
I think the reason there is so many churches is a lot harder to the wrong thing then the right thing. It is easier to start a new church to justify the the wrong way. It is hard to turn the orther cheek.
It has been my experience that many new churches are started ostensibly to get back to “true” Christianity. In reality, many new churches are created over power struggles.
The approximate number of Christian denominations in the United States was my search criteria.
I am not searching for an exact number, but an approximate range would be a good to know.
Good job Howard. My real interest is ” why so many “.
Thanks
I think its basically because every independent church, which includes most Baptist and Non-Denominational Churches, are counted as individual denominations.
The graph is incredibly misleading.
The Catholic Church was founded by Christ Himself and left Saint Peter the Keys. Peter was first pope, and picked his successor himself, Pope Linus, also mentioned in Scripture.
There has been no break away by the Catholic Church, and She alone has survived every empire and attempt to overthrow Her.
The Catholic Church was not a result of the schism, as shown here in 11th century. The red bar should have been depicted at the very beginning. Every single denomination flows from the Catholic Church.
God bless.
Your point is correct (sort of). There is no doubt that the Roman Catholic Church grew directly out of the early Church, along with several of the Orthodox Churches. It did not ‘branch off’ from the early church. However, it was not distinctly ‘Roman Catholic’ until many centuries later. The office of the Pope did not exist until at least the 3rd century, and there wasn’t even a Latin language Bible until St. Jerome completed the Vulgate in the 4th century. I don’t even know if it was called the Roman Catholic Church prior to the Great Schism with the Greek Orthodox Church.
You shouldn’t really trust Quora, most times there are just armchair experts that do no more than get answers from Google. It is like Yahoo answers. Knowing this it takes away from your credibility.
Well, I really do try my best to be as accurate as possible. In the case of this article, I did try to get my hands on the best info available. I am very open-minded about comments, so if you have better sources I will be delighted to let you post them. Thanks!
hello how are you. please may l have the current numbers of church denomination worldwide.
Everything I know is in this article. Sorry I can’t help further!
So what is your count?
I estimate that there are probably between eight and sixteen million church buildings in the world
like FOR Howard Kramer to contact by email his. Info to talk to his I have Questions that he may answer to. I need help on
Thank this is great work he doing .
You are welcome!
There are at least 33000 denominations of Christianity in the united states alone due to the fact that Jesus Christ left no unifying testament, written by Him, to insure Christianity had the spiritual path christians are meant to follow. Churches get organized through interpreting the holy book, the bible.Followers arise to believe that their church is THE ONE AND ONLY church Jesus Himself would attend. It is exceptionally confusing. Not until the unity of religions choose to glorify God and praise Him, with the personal attitude that the reason for our being ,is to glorify God and learn His attributes. When we are listening to the Holy Spirit in our heart and soul, we can convert our faith into spiritual action. We develop a good character and are honest, kind, just, loving and serve to carry on an ever advancing civilization.
Agreed
What is your faith? Neat way to see the world!
It’s strange that the Catholic Church is the oldest church Christian of course, it was founded by Jesus Christ himself. So it’s the Catholic Church is the one true church why are there so many other Christian churches yes I know that there were many bad popes but that wasn’t an excuse for someone to start another church. Christ established One Church. And he said the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against it. You did not say the gates of hell would not try which they do often enough. The Pope’s are human, just like us and there are some that made big errors just like us. You stick with what you believe when it gets tough you don’t run away. And the word Catholic means universe Church. I’m not a scholar I don’t have a college degree but I read and I pray and I asked God to guide me.💖🕊🕊
It will take someone a lot smarter than me to figure out why there are so many different churches in the world.
Hmmmm – too bad the bishops of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Constantinople aren’t around anymore to comment. on the (mostly political) events of 1054 AD.
I would love to have first hand accounts of what really happened!
There is no proof there ever was a “Jesus”, so there is no “true church”. There were many different Christian cults, and each thought they were the “ONE”. And they fought each other, often violently. The violence part happens because the theology of the Bible creates paranoia: a supposedly all-powerful god is having an eons-long battle with a devil, a devil this god supposedly created. These two fight over who gets human “souls” after they die. That is the most illogical theology on the planet: “all-powerful” does not allow for a devil fighting this all-powerful god!. However, in this stupid theology this devil supposedly can change shape (a snake in one story; in another story devils enter the bodies of pigs, So, it was assumed by the gullible that this devil could also enter and take over humans. Who, then, could you trust? Even your mother might get possed by this unlikely devil. Therefore the paranoia-driven wars between the cults These fights were upsetting the economy and peace of the Roman Empire, so in 335 A.D. Emperor Constantine made all the cults gather at Nicene (in Turkey) to work out what Christianity was! They made stuff up, signed an agreement, a business agreement, and that started the Roman Catholic Church. That, not this Jesus figure.. But then the violence got worse! Read history! Also, there was no Bible; there were many, and none were the same. The oldest surving Bible is only 1000 years old and is in Russia. No complete bible exist from earlier times! So, no one knows what earlier bibles said. The Bible as most know it today was created by an Englishman, Alcuin of York around 800 A.D.He wrote the Bible as we know it!
I could go on and on, but, no, the Catholic Church was not founded by a guy called Jesus. Cheers! Will Knutsen..
I would love to know the full true history of the beginning of Christianity. Wish I had a time machine!
Nazarene elect first woman Bishop/General Superintendent. German-born Rev. Dr. Carla Sunberg has been promoted from President of The Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, to a General Superintendent/Bishop. She was a Missionary in Russia, USSR for 13 years.
Bishop Sunberg has earned a number of advanced degrees in religion, and honored with several honorary D.D.’s
Thw Church of the Nazarene International has grown to 29,000 local congregations with 29,000 pastors
since 1908.
Thanks for the additional information!