Christians Approach 2 Billion

                                                                                                                Vol. XII, No. 8, September 1999

More than 2 billion people worldwide will be Christians in 2000. Researchers David Barrett and Todd Johnson estimate there are 1.99 billion people who profess Christianity today, about one-third of the world’s population. Roman Catholics constitute the largest group of Christians, with more than 1 billion members, followed by mainline Protestants with 321 million. Orthodox churches have 222 million believers. Anglican groups report 74.5 million. Charismatics and Pentecostals, including independents and others who belong to denominations, number about 449 million, the report said.

Islam is the second largest religion with 1.19 billion adherents, followed by Hinduism (774 million), non-religious (768 million), Buddhism (359 million), tribal religions (252 million), atheism (151 million), new religions (101 million), Sikhism (22.7 million), and Jews (14.2 million), Barrett said. [BP]