Protestantism by country


Protestants worldwide are estimated to be around 800 million, among approximately 2.3 billion Christians. 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. Protestants account for nearly 35% of Christians worldwide and more than one tenth of the total human population. Various estimates put the percentage of Protestants in relation to the total number of the world's Christians at 33%, 36%, 36.7%, and 40%, while in relation to the world's population at 11.6% and 13%.
Within Europe, Protestantism remains the most practiced religion in the Nordic countries and United Kingdom. In other historical Protestant strongholds such as Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Latvia, Estonia and Hungary, it remains one of the practiced religions. Although Czech Republic was the site of one of the most significant pre-reformation movements, there are only few Protestant adherents—mainly due to historical reasons like persecution of Protestants by the Catholic Habsburgs, restrictions during the Communist rule and also the ongoing secularization. Over the last several decades, Protestant practice has been declining as secularization has increased. According to a 2019 study about religiosity in the European Union by Eurobarometer, Protestants made up only 9% of the EU population. According to Pew Research Center, Protestants constituted nearly one fifth of the continent's Christian population in 2010. Clarke and Beyer estimate that Protestants constituted 15% of all Europeans in 2009, while Noll claims that less than 12% of them lived in Europe in 2010.
Changes in worldwide Protestantism over the last century have been significant. Since 1900, Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia and South America. That caused Protestantism to be called a primarily non-Western religion. 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. According to one source, Protestants constituted respectively 2.5% of South Americans, 2% of Africans and 0.5% of Asians in 1900. In 2000, these percentages had increased to 17%, more than 27% and 5.5%, respectively. 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. By 2010, 59% of Anglicans were found in Africa. China is home to the world's largest Protestant minority.
Protestantism is growing in Africa, Asia, Latin America while declining in North America and Europe. In France, Protestantism was eradicated after the abolition of the Edict of Nantes by the Edict of Fontainebleau and the following persecution of Huguenots. However, "by 2050 it is expected that less than 9% of Protestants will be European" and "sometime around 2040 half of all Protestants will likely live in Africa." The United States is home to approximately 20% of Protestants. According to a 2019 study, Protestant share of U.S. population dropped to 43%, ending its historical status as religion of the majority. The decline is attributed mainly to the dropping membership of the Mainline Protestant churches whileEvangelical Protestant and Black churches are relatively stable.
In 2010, the largest Protestant denominational families were historically Pentecostal denominations, Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, United and uniting churches, Presbyterian or Reformed, Methodist, Adventist, Congregationalist, Brethren, The Salvation Army and Moravian. Other denominations accounted for 38.2% of Protestants.
By 2050, some project Protestantism to rise to slightly more than half of the world's total Christian population. In 2004, Hans J. Hillerbrand asserted that "wider Protestant" and Catholic share of the global Christian population will almost be the same by 2050, with "wider Protestants" exhibiting a significantly higher growth rate.

Methodology

For the purposes of this list, the following Christian branches are considered Protestant:
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.

Countries

According to some, Russia is another country to see Protestant growth.
The seven regions considered in the following table are the six traditional ones, plus Middle East.

By region

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.
RegionTotal PopulationProtestants% Protestant% of Protestant total
Central Africa91,561,87518,322,15120.01%3.09%
East Africa225,488,56636,965,72816.39%6.23%
North Africa161,963,837100,3000.06%0.01%
Southern Africa137,092,01955,432,67740.44%9.35%
West Africa269,935,59049,230,62718.24%8.30%
Total886,041,887160,051,48218.06%26.99%

RegionTotal PopulationProtestants% Protestant% of Protestant total
Central Europe82,033,0477,803,1779.51%1.32%
Eastern Europe209,198,1661,389,4520.66%0.23%
Northern Europe191,466,473104,997,79654.8%17.71%
Balkans65,407,6091,713,0802.62%0.31%
Southern Europe180,498,9231,964,5381.09%0.33%
Total728,604,218117,868,04316.2%19.90%

RegionTotal PopulationProtestants% Protestant% of Protestant total
Oceania30,809,78113,474,01243.73%2.27%

Maps

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