Countries With the Largest Christian Population: With over 2.38 billion adherents, representing about one-third of the world’s population, Christianity is the largest religion in the world and an Abrahamic faith. Its followers, known as Christians, are thought to make up the majority of people in 157 countries and territories.
The importance of Christianity as a world religion has been acknowledged. For believers, it is a way of life and practice followed by Christians everywhere. Christianity is the most prevalent and extensively practised religion in many parts of the world, including Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Oceania.
This article explores countries with the largest Christian populations.
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Top 10 Countries with the Largest Christian Population in 2024
1. USA – 243.06 Million: The United States of America is the country with the largest concentration of Christians, accounting for 11.2% of the global population, with 243,060,000 members spread over fifty states. Given its past, this should not be shocking.
Many of the states were established to serve as Christian havens when they were first divided up by English landowners. It was intended for Pennsylvania to serve as a haven for threatened religious groups like the Anabaptists, who are still present in the US’s Amish communities today.
Likewise, Maryland, named after Mary Tudor of England, was a great site for the British to send their surplus Catholics, while nearly the entire east bay became the home of Puritan protestants, seeking a new holy land away from the Catholic powers of Europe.
Only 78.3% of all Americans are Christians today compared to 19.5% in the 19th century, but with a population of more than 310,380,000, that is a sizable proportion of Christians.
2. Brazil –173.3 Million: Not only is Brazil the biggest nation in South America, but it is also the second-largest Christian nation in the world, with over 173,300,000 adherents, and has the highest concentration of Catholics anywhere in the world.
A sanctuary for Catholics, this nation best exemplifies Catholicism’s exodus from its traditional home in Italy. With almost 88.9% of its people identifying as Christian, Brazil accounts for 8% of the world’s Christian population.
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3. Mexico – 107.91 Million: Although Mexico’s initial encounter with Christianity during the Conquistador regime will hardly be regarded as an illustration of global compassion, this former Spanish colony, like the Philippines, now accounts for a sizable portion of the world’s Christian population.
Mexico is home to 5% of the world’s Christians. The majority of these 107,910,000 members are Catholic, following the example of their colonizer.
A major portion of the Hispanic population in North America is Catholic, and they are the largest group of Spanish speakers in the world. Mexico has the third-highest number of Christians worldwide and in the Americas, demonstrating a recent trend in the distribution of Christians globally.
4. Russia – 107.5 Million: Notably, it is the world’s largest country. Of its 142,960,000 inhabitants, 73.3% are Christians, demonstrating that while Napoleon’s and Germany’s forces may have slowed down during the winter, Christian missionaries did not.
Unique to this list, the majority of Russia’s 104,750,000 Christians adhere to the Orthodox faith, making them the world’s largest Orthodox Christian nation and accounting for 4.8% of all Christians worldwide.
5. The Philippines – 86.37 Million: With 86,370,000 Christians dispersed among its 7,107 islands, the Philippines is Asia’s largest Christian nation, accounting for 4% of the world’s Christians.
The Philippines, the seventh most populous nation in Asia, got its name from Spanish King Philip, who founded a colony and a religion there in the mid-15th century, a religion that must have caught on, as over 92% of its people identify as Christian. Most of them are Catholic, maybe following in the footsteps of their colonizer.
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6. Nigeria – 78.05 Million: The majority of people in Nigeria are Christians. The Second Coming by Chinua Achebe, the most well-known novel from Nigeria (and possibly all of Africa), focuses heavily on the 19th-century advent of Christianity in Nigeria and most of Africa.
Even if the events of that novel don’t exactly depict the introduction of Christianity to Nigeria in the best light, this doesn’t seem to have hampered the faith’s expansion there in the slightest.
Over 78,050,000 individuals, equivalent to 49.3% of Nigeria’s population, identify as Christians, making up 3.6% of the world’s population. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and it may be the only country that celebrates Saint Patrick’s Day.
Nigerian Christians can claim a connection to Irish Christians because they both have St. Patrick as their patron saint.
7. China – 68.41 Million: Although more than half of its population does not identify with any religion, China, which has the greatest overall population on Earth and is among the top 5 largest countries in the world by land area, makes this list.
The majority of Chinese religions date back to before Christianity was introduced there, and they include several Folk faiths. China is home to the seventh-largest number of Christians in the world, despite having only 5.1% of its 1,341,340,000 people identify as Christians. 3.1% of all believers worldwide are Chinese Christians, numbering 68,410,000 of them.
8. Democratic Republic Of The Congo – 63.21 Million: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s second-largest nation, has more than 95% of its inhabitants identify as Christians, making it the continent’s second-largest Christian nation.
Over half of the 63,210,000 Christians in the country are Catholic, and many of the schools and hospitals in the Congo are run by the Catholic Church, which has been referred to as the only national institution in the region.
The nation’s religion may be a legacy from the Congo’s status as a Belgian colony, along with the French language.
The Congo is the largest Francophone country and has the second-highest population of French speakers in the world. Christians from this country make up 2.9% of the world’s population.
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9. Germany – 56.54 Million: Germany, the economic engine of Europe and the former residence of the Holy Roman Emperor (not to be confused with the slightly less holy pre-Christian emperors of Rome), has been a Christian nation for almost as long as it has been German.
As of today, Germany accounts for 56,540,000 million Christians worldwide, that is, 2.6% of all people. Since the forefather of Germany,
Charlemagne, was crowned Emperor of Rome in the ninth century, Germany has also served as the physical arm of the Catholic Church for a very long time. Yet in recent years there has been a minor deterioration in their relationship, either as a result of one of their emperors drowning while travelling to a crusade or as a result of another being excommunicated.
Whatever the cause, Germany was the site of a minor event known as the Reformation in the 16th century, which permanently altered Christianity. Even though the Germans may have diverged, they continued to practice Christianity. In fact, 68.7% of the population of the nation is still Christian, which at the very least demonstrates their consistency.
10. Ethiopia- 52.07 Million: Ethiopia, which adopted Christianity as its official religion in the fourth century AD, has been a Christian nation for longer than any other nation on this list.
With 82,950,000 people in the country, 52,07,000 of them identify as Christians representing 62.8% of the population. Of course, Ethiopia has more to be proud of than just this.
Prominent geneticists concur that this sub-Saharan country is most likely the oldest place where people have lived and that it served as the starting point for the global expansion of humankind.
Hence, although Ethiopia is home to 2.4% of all Christians worldwide, it is also where all of them originate.
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Conclusion
One of the most practised religions in the world is Christianity. It is highly prevalent in different countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa as well as the transcontinental countries. According to research, over 2.4 billion people worldwide, making up about one-third of the world’s population, identify as Christians.
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.