largest protestant denomination?

Question

What is the world's largest protestant denomination?

Answer 1

World's Largest Protestant denomination (vs largest USA protestant denomination):

1) Catholic 1,050,000,000:

Includes Old Catholic, Aglipayan (Philipines), Uniate, in addition to the Catholic Church headquartered at the Vatican. Occasionally "Catholic" is used, to refer to a branch of Christianity that includes the Catholic Church headquartered at the Vatican, as well as relatively recent off-shoots that still consider themselves Catholic, such as the Old Catholic churches. Certainly it also includes non-Latin Rite Catholic churches such as Uniates, Greek Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics, Maronites, etc., all of which are in full papal communion and regarded as part of the same religious body as the "Roman Catholic" church. The fact that there are non-Latin Rite Catholics such as these is one of the reasons that many Catholics do not like the term "Roman Catholic Church" as a name for their church. While "Roman Catholic" has long been used without any offense intended, it is increasingly disliked by some members of the Vatican-based Catholic Church, and in nearly every place on this web site that this church is mentioned, the term "Catholic Church" is used. "Roman" is left off, as both inaccurate and potentially objectionable. The term "Catholics" by itself refers to members of the Vatican-based Catholic Church, whether they be Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics, Uniates, Coptic Catholics, etc.

Also, Episcopalians are generally grouped with Protestants (or, in studies with more specificity, Liberal Protestants).

2) Orthodox/Eastern Christian 240,000,000:

As a "branch", the Orthodox/Eastern churches include Eastern churches not in communion with Constantinople, Chalcedonian and Non-chalcedonian, Nestorian, Coptic, Ethiopian Orthodox, various Jacobite/Syrian Orthodox, Armenian.

3) African indigenous sects (AICs) 110,000,000:

Many African Initiated/Indigenous/Independent Churches (AICs) such as the Kimbanguist Church (6.5 million).

4) Pentecostal 105,000,000:

Examples: Assemblies of God, Church of God in Christ, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, various Churches of God, etc. Includes officially Pentecostal denominations--those which do not identify primarily with other denominational families, such as Baptist or Methodist. There are denominations and/or congregations which have generic pentecostal characteristics, or are charismatic or evangelical, but are not classified primarily as a Pentecostal denomination.

5) Reformed/Presbyterian/Congregational/
United 75,000,000:

Primarily includes the "Christian Churches and Churches of Christ", "Church of Christ" (or "Churches of Christ") and the "Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)";

6) Anglican 73,000,000
7) Baptist 70,000,000
8) Methodist 70,000,000
9) Lutheran 64,000,000
10) Jehovah's Witnesses 14,800,000
11) Adventist 12,000,000
12) Latter Day Saints (Mormons) 12,500,000
13) Apostolic/New Apostolic 10,000,000
14) Stone-Campbell ("Restoration Movement", incl. the "Christian Churches and Churches of Christ", "Church of Christ" (or "Churches of Christ") and the "Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)" ) 5,400,000
15) New Thought (Unity, Christian Science, Religious Science, etc.) 1,500,000
16) Brethren (incl. Plymouth) 1,500,000
17) Mennonite (incl. Amish) 1,250,000
18) Friends (Quakers) 300,000
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2004: Largest Protestant Denomination in US (not in the world): Southern Baptist Convention
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Major Religions of the World
Ranked by Number of Adherents:
(Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.)

1) Christianity: 2.1 billion.

For statistical purposes: Groups which self-identify as part of Christianity include (but are not limited to): African Independent Churches (AICs), the Aglipayan Church, Amish, Anglicans, Armenian Apostolic, Assemblies of God; Baptists, Calvary Chapel, Catholics, Christadelphians, Christian Science, the Community of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("Mormons"), Coptic Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches, Ethiopian Orthodox, Evangelicals, Iglesia ni Cristo, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Local Church, Lutherans, Methodists, Monophysites, Nestorians, the New Apostolic Church, Pentecostals, Plymouth Brethren, Presbyterians, the Salvation Army, Seventh-Day Adventists, Shakers, Stone-Campbell churches (Disciples of Christ; Churches of Christ; the "Christian Church and Churches of Christ"; the International Church of Christ); Uniate churches, United Church of Christ/Congregationalists, the Unity Church, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Vineyard churches and others. These groups exhibit varying degrees of similarity, cooporation, communion, etc. with other groups. None are known to consider all other Chrisian sub-groups to be equally valid. David Barrett, an Evangelical Christian who is the compiler of religion statistics for the Encyclopedia Britannica and the World Christian Encyclopedia, includes all of the groups listed above in the worldwide statistics for Christianity.

2) Islam: 1.3 billion

3) Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion

4) Hinduism: 900 million

5) Chinese traditional religion: 394 million

6) Buddhism: 376 million

7) primal-indigenous: 300 million

8) African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million

9) Sikhism: 23 million

10) Juche: 19 million

11) Spiritism: 15 million

12) Judaism: 14 million

Great question!

Answer 2

The Southern Baptist Convention claims that it is the world's largest protestant denomination, and it is also the largest protestant denomination in the USA.

Answer 3

the Southern Baptist Convention leads the way with over 16 million followers

www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1204271,00.html

go to Yahoo Search and type in largest prodestant denomination

Answer 4

General Calvinist (including Prebyterians) with about 75 million.

General definitions of Baptists, Methodists, and Lutherans all have about 70 million.

Somebody mentioned Anglican, though not generally defined as Protestant, has about 73 million.

Answer 5

Southern Baptist, they claim to be the largest and no one has denied it or said other wise about it, so it leaves us to believe they are.

Answer 6

Hmmm Lutheran ELCA?

Answer 7

I would guess anglican ( church of england) but I dop not think it matters as we all worship the one God.

Answer 8

Baptist?

Pentecostal?

Southern Baptist?