Moreover, Russia is home to the largest autocephalous or ecclesiastically independent Eastern Orthodox Church in the world, the Russian Orthodox Church. Byzantine monks first introduced Christianity into Russia in the 9th century. Following his baptism in , Vladimir I, the prince of Kiev, led his people into Christianity.
While Orthodox Christianity is still the dominant religion in Russia, other Christian traditions have grown in recent decades. Outside of the Orthodox Church, Protestants constitute the largest Christian group, with nearly 3 million adherents. A large segment of the Russian population does not identify as Christian, including many who are unaffiliated with any particular religion.
According to a Pew Forum report, Russia has the largest Muslim population in Europe in absolute numbers. Johnson and Kenneth R. Sub-Saharan Africa has more than million Christians, which makes it the region with the third-largest number of Christians worldwide. Spotlight on Nigeria. There are more Christians in Nigeria than in any single nation in traditionally Christian Western Europe.
Because the proportion of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria is a sensitive political issue, the national census has not asked questions about religion since By , the percentage of the population that belonged to other religions had declined by 15 points, nearly matching the During this same period, the percentage of Muslims increased by less than 2 points. It includes nearly 60 million Protestants broadly defined , about 20 million Catholics and more than , other Christians.
Ethiopia has had a significant Christian presence since the establishment of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the early 4th century. Muslims constitute the largest non- Christian group, accounting for about a third of the population. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church remained under the oversight of Egyptian Orthodox bishops of the Coptic Church until , when it came under an Ethiopian patriarch.
Like the Coptic Church and other Oriental Orthodox churches, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church teaches that Christ has one indivisible nature rather than two separate natures, divine and human see Defining Christian Traditions on page Spotlight on China.
In the Asia-Pacific region, only the Philippines has a larger Christian population. See Living as Majorities and Minorities. As recently as three decades ago, few researchers even within mainland China knew whether religion had survived the Cultural Revolution initiated by Chairman Mao Zedong. It is clear now, however, that religion not only survived but that hundreds of millions of Chinese today have some religious faith, including tens of millions of Christians.
Visible in nearly every major Chinese city are the steeples of churches affiliated with one of the two state-approved and state-regulated Christian associations: the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the Patriotic Catholic Association.
Both associations operate their own seminaries, employ thousands of clergy and are served by the Amity Printing Company in Nanjing, which prints more than 10 million Bibles annually.
Despite these visible manifestations of Chinese Christianity, there are significant challenges in estimating its actual size. A further complication is that a substantial number of Christians worship in independent, unregistered churches.
These churches do not have legal status because they have not affiliated with one of the two officially approved associations. Additionally, a substantial number of Catholics worship in unregistered congregations that refuse to join the Patriotic Catholic Association.
A main point of contention is that the Association operates independently from Rome; for instance, it appoints bishops without the approval of the pope. This is because there are few specific laws that clearly establish the limits and freedoms of religious groups in society. Of these, roughly 9 million 0. The exact number of Catholics in unregistered congregations is difficult to estimate because there may be double counting in some Catholic dioceses where churches and bishops are affiliated with both the official and unofficial churches.
Christians affiliated with the state-approved Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement number roughly 23 million 1. This study estimates that an additional 35 million Christians in China 2. Additionally, there are small populations of Orthodox Christians and other Christians, some of whom are expatriates.
The general consensus among scholars of religion in China is that Christianity has grown substantially during the past three decades. Spotlight on the Philippines. The Philippines has the fifth-largest Christian population in the world, with about 87 million Christians. Indeed, the Philippines has the largest Christian population outside of the Americas and Europe.
It also has the third-largest Catholic population in the world at about 76 million , behind Brazil and Mexico and slightly ahead of the U. Catholic population. San Marino's population is More than 90 percent of the population is Catholic. The population of Seychelles, an island chain in the Indian Ocean, is The population of the Faroe Islands, in the North Atlantic, is The largest denomination is Evangelical Lutheran.
The population of Micronesia, a federation of islands in the Pacific, is Here, Catholics throw money from a church tower in gratitude for favors received from the Virgin Mary. Haiti's population is 96 percent Christian, primarily Catholic. Many Haitians practice the tradition of voodoo as well as Christianity.
Armenia's population is Almost all belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, which was founded in the first century A. Armenia became the first nation to declare Christianity as its state religion in A. Nearly 97 percent of the population is Catholic.
The population of Vatican City -- home of the pope, St. Vatican City, an independent city-state of just over acres located within Rome, has a population of about 1, people. Christianity has several denominations, but the largest is the Catholic Church. There are about 1. Other large denominations include Protestantism and the Eastern Orthodox Church. However, Christianity is also practiced on a smaller scale in regions, including the Middle East and Indonesia.
In 15 nations, Christianity has been deemed the state religion. These nations include England, Greece , and Iceland.
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