List of Christian denominations by number of members

This is a list of Christian denominations by number of members. It is inevitably partial and generally based on claims by the denominations themselves. The numbers should therefore be considered approximate and the article an ongoing work-in-progress.

The list includes the six main taxonomically divided groups which are the: Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Restorationism. This list additionally includes individual denominations such as the Eastern Catholic Churches, independent Catholic denominations, offshoots of both Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, as well as Protestant and Restorationist denominations with at least 200,000 members.

Christianity is the largest religious group in the world, with an estimated 2.3 to 2.6 billion adherents in 2020.

Christian denominational families

The various denominations of Christianity fall into several large families, shaped both by culture and history.

Christianity arose in the first century AD after Rome had conquered much of the western parts of the fragmented Hellenistic empire created by Alexander the Great. The linguistic and cultural divisions of the first century AD Roman Empire with, broadly speaking, a Latin West and a Greek East, but also with significant areas in North Africa where Coptic was the dominant language, and areas in the Near East where Syriac or Aramaic was the dominant language, were reflected in the early Christian church. The church was called "Catholic" meaning "universal" from very early in the second century, a tacit acknowledgement of the many different cultures it encompassed.

Early Christianity suffered great, although intermittent, persecution from the state until Emperor Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, legalizing Christianity. Shortly after the cessation of persecution, the Church had the luxury of reflecting on the meaning of its own teachings for the first time. Significant disputes arose, particularly over the nature of Christ and the relationship between Christ, the Father, and the Spirit. The Church chose to address those disputes with Ecumenical councils, the first four of which were at Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon. The first two of these councils, the First Council of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople gave birth to the Nicene Creed which has become the touchstone for Christian beliefs.

Both of the next two Councils, the Council of Ephesus, and the Council of Chalcedon led to significant ruptures in the Church. Many Christians espousing the minority position at these two councils, even after extensive discussion and attempts at reconciliation, chose to strike out on their own, rather than to accept the positions held by the majority of the church fathers at the councils.

The Church of the East, encompassing the Syriac speaking Christians in Sasanian-occupied Mesopotamia and far-eastern border regions of the Roman Empire, began to break contact with the Christians in the Roman Empire due to political pressure from the Persians as well as disagreements following the Council of Ephesus after 431 AD.

In 451 AD, after the Council of Chalcedon, the group that later became known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches, encompassing many Coptic speaking Christians in North Africa, also split off.

In 1054 AD, an accumulation of misunderstanding, disrespect, political pressures, and genuine theological differences led to the Great Schism, dividing Greek-speaking Christians who became the Eastern Orthodox, from Latin-speaking Christians who kept the name Catholic, but increasingly prefaced it with the adjective "Roman".

Beginning in 1517, the western, Latin-speaking church was itself rent asunder by the Protestant Reformation, with many Christians rejecting papal authority and organising together in new ways. Broadly speaking, Protestantism has four streams: Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anabaptism, and Anglicanism. While all of these Christian groups have their own subsequent splits, the fragmentation in Protestantism has been relatively extreme, with hundreds of denominations. However, many of these independent churches still belong to broader Protestant traditions.

Some of these fragmented groups, particularly among the Eastern churches, have sought to return or reestablish communion with the Catholic Church, and have reunited themselves under papal authority.

Catholicism – 1.272–1.422 billion Catholicism is the main branch of Christianity and the Catholic Church is the largest among churches. About 50% of all Christians are Catholics. According to the annual directory of the Catholic Church or Annuario Pontificio of 2024, there were 1.390 billion baptized Catholics in 2022; that was 1.422 billion in 2024. In 2025, the World Christian Database reported 1.272 billion Catholics. That figure does not include independent denominations that self-identify as Catholic, numbering some 19 million adherents subscribing to Old Catholicism and other forms of Independent Catholicism.

Latin Church – 1.404 billion

Eastern Catholic Churches – 18 million Source

Byzantine Rite – 8.7 million Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church – 5.5 million Melkite Greek Catholic Church – 1.6 million Romanian Greek Catholic Church – 0.5 million Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church – 0.4 million Hungarian Greek Catholic Church – 0.3 million Slovak Greek Catholic Church – 0.3 million Belarusian Greek Catholic Church – 0.1 million Italo-Albanian Catholic Church – 0.01 million Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia – 0.01 million Georgian Byzantine Catholic Church – 0.01 million Albanian Greek Catholic Church – 0.01 million Russian Greek Catholic Church – 0.01 million Greek Byzantine Catholic Church – 0.006 million Macedonian Greek Catholic Church – 0.001 million Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church – 0.001 million East Syriac Rite – 4.9 million Syro-Malabar Church – 4.3 million Chaldean Catholic Church – 0.6 million West Syriac Rite – 4.2 million Maronite Church – 3.5 million Syro-Malankara Catholic Church – 0.5 million Syriac Catholic Church – 0.2 million Armenian Rite – 0.8 million Armenian Catholic Church – 0.8 million Alexandrian Rite – 0.5 million Coptic Catholic Church – 0.2 million Eritrean Catholic Church – 0.2 million Ethiopian Catholic Church – 0.07 million

Protestantism – 0.800–1.1 billion

Protestantism is the second‑largest major group of Christians by number of followers. In 2025, the World Christian Database reported 629 million historic Protestants, 409 million Independents, and 151 million unaffiliated Christians, collectively referred to as broad‑sense Protestantism.Multiple sources: Anckar, Carsten (2022), Religion and Democracy: A Worldwide Comparison, p103, "Wide definition of Protestantism...includes Protestants, Marginal Christians, Anglicans, Christian Independents, and unaffiliated Christians" Estimates vary from 628 million in the narrow sense to 1.2 billion in the broad sense, representing between 24% and 45% of all Christians.Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population , The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, December 2011Jay Diamond, Larry. Plattner, Marc F. and Costopoulos, Philip J. World Religions and Democracy. 2005, page 119.( also in PDF file (archived from the original on 13 April 2008), p49), 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." The main reason for this wide range is the lack of a common agreement among scholars as to which denominations constitute Protestantism. For instance, most sources include Anabaptism, Anglicanism, Baptists and non-denominational Christianity as part of Protestantism. However, widely used references like the World Christian Encyclopedia, which has been documenting the changing status of World Christianity over the past 120 years, classifies Independent Christians or non-denominational Pentecostals as a separate category from Protestantism. Moreover, Protestant denominations altogether do not form a single structure comparable to the Catholic Church, or to a lesser extent the Eastern Orthodox communion. However, several different comparable communions exist within Protestantism, such as the World Evangelical Alliance, the Anglican Communion, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Methodist Council and the Lutheran World Federation. Regardless, 900 million is the most accepted figure among various authors and scholars, and thus is used in this article. Note that this 900 million figure also includes Anglicans, Anabaptists, Baptists, as well as multiple other groups that might sometimes disavow a common "Protestant" designation, and would rather prefer to be called, simply, "Christian". According to Mark Juergensmeyer of the University of California, "popular Protestantism" (that is to say all forms of Protestantism with the notable exception of the historical denominations deriving from the Protestant Reformation) is the most dynamic religious movement in the contemporary world, alongside resurgent Islam.

Historical Protestantism – 400–600 million The number of individuals who are members of historical Protestant Churches totals to 400–600 million.

Anglicanism – 85–110 million Sources

There are 85–110 million Christians in Anglican tradition, mostly part of the Anglican Communion, the third-largest Christian communion in the world, with 42 members (provinces). When united churches in the Anglican Communion and the breakaway Continuing Anglican movement were not counted, there were an estimated 97.4 million Anglicans worldwide in 2020. Anglican Communion – 85–110 million Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans – 52 million Church of Nigeria – 25 million Church of Uganda – 13.3 million Anglican Church of Kenya – 5.8 million Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan – 5 million Anglican Church of Rwanda – 1.5 million Province of the Anglican Church of the Congo – 0.5 million Anglican Church in North America – 0.1 million Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa – 0.1 million Church of England – 25 million Church of South India – 5 million Anglican Church of Southern Africa – 3–4 million Anglican Church of Australia – 2.5–4.9 million Church of North India – 2.3 million Anglican Church of Tanzania – 2.0–3.3 million Church of Pakistan – 1.9 million Episcopal Church in the United States – 1.6–2.4 million Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan – 1.1 million Church of the Province of West Africa – 1.0 million Anglican Church of Burundi – 0.9 million Church of the Province of Central Africa – 0.9 million Church in the Province of the West Indies – 0.8 million Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean – 0.5 million Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola – 0.5 million Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia – 0.4 million Church of Ireland – 0.3 million Anglican Church of Canada – 0.3–1.1 million Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea – 0.2 million Anglican Church of Melanesia – 0.2–0.4 million Episcopal Church in the Philippines – 0.2 million Anglican Church of Korea – 0.1 million Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil – 0.1 million Anglican Church in Central America – 0.04 million Continuing Anglican movement and independent churches – 0.7 million Traditional Anglican Church – 0.4 million

Baptist churches – 51–110 million Source

The worldwide Baptist community numbers about 100 million. However, the Baptist World Alliance, a world communion of Baptist churches, self-reports only 51 million baptized believers, as Baptists do not count children as members, since they believe in believer's baptism, nor do all Baptists participate in the Alliance. Therefore, the BWA is the eighth-largest Christian communion.