Christianity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Demographics
Further information: Christianity by country and Christian population growth
See also: Christendom
The 7th-century Khor Virap monastery in the shadow of Mount Ararat. Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as the state religion in AD 301.[123]
Countries with 50% and more Christians are colored purple while countries with 10% to 50% Christians are colored pink.
Nations with Christianity as their state religion:
Orthodox Christianity
Protestantism and Anglicanism
Catholicism
With around 2.2 billion adherents,[19][20][21] split into 3 main branches of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox, Christianity is the world's largest religion.[170] The Christian share of the world's population has stood at around 33% for the last hundred years, which says that one in three persons on earth are Christians. This masks a major shift in the demographics of Christianity; large increases in the developing world (around 23,000 per day) have been accompanied by substantial declines in the developed world, mainly in Europe and North America (around 7,600 per day).[171] It is still the predominant religion in Europe, the Americas and Southern Africa. In Asia, it is the dominant religion in Georgia, Armenia, East Timor and the Philippines.[172] However, it is declining in many areas including the Northern and Western United States,[173] Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), northern Europe (including Great Britain,[174] Scandinavia and other places), France, Germany, the Canadian provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, and parts of Asia (especially the Middle East,[175][176][177] South Korea,[178] Taiwan,[179] The Philippines[citation needed] and Macau[180]). The Christian population is not decreasing in Brazil, the Southern United States[181] and the province of Alberta, Canada,[182] but the percentage is decreasing. In countries such as Australia[183] and New Zealand,[184] the Christian population are declining in both numbers and percentage. Despite the declining numbers, Christianity remains the dominant religion in the Western World, where 70% are Christians,[22] in Europe 76.2% of the population considering themselves Christians,[185] and 86.0% of the Americas[186] and 73.36% in Oceania still practice Christianity.[22]
However, there are many charismatic movements that have become well established over large parts of the world, especially Africa, Latin America and Asia.[187][188][189][190][191] A leading Saudi Arabian Muslim leader Sheikh Ahmad al Qatanni reported on Aljazeera that every day 16,000 African Muslims convert to Christianity. He claimed that Islam was losing 6 million African Muslims a year to becoming Christians,[192][193][194][195][196] including Muslims in Algeria,[197] France,[197] Iran,[198] India,[197] Morocco,[197] Russia,[197] and Turkey,[197][199] and Central Asia.[200][201] It is also reported that Christianity is popular among people of different backgrounds in India (mostly Hindus),[202] and Malaysia,[203] Mongolia,[204] Nigeria,[205] Vietnam,[206] Singapore,[207] Indonesia,[208][209] China,[210] Japan,[211] and South Korea.[212]
In most countries in the developed world, church attendance among people who continue to identify themselves as Christians has been falling over the last few decades.[213] Some sources view this simply as part of a drift away from traditional membership institutions,[214] while others link it to signs of a decline in belief in the importance of religion in general.[215]
Christianity, in one form or another, is the sole state religion of the following nations: Costa Rica (Roman Catholic),[216] Denmark (Evangelical Lutheran),[217] El Salvador (Roman Catholic),[218] England (Anglican),[219] Finland (Evangelical Lutheran & Orthodox),[220][221] Georgia (Georgian Orthodox),[222] Greece (Greek Orthodox),[218] Iceland (Evangelical Lutheran),[223] Liechtenstein (Roman Catholic),[224] Malta (Roman Catholic),[225] Monaco (Roman Catholic),[226] and Vatican City (Roman Catholic).[227]
There are numerous other countries, such as Cyprus, which although do not have an established church, still give official recognition to a specific Christian denomination.[228]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity#Demographics < click
oh ye of little faith..and of great propaganda.
