Your Total “Christian Denominations” Count for today is 39521. That is your total denominations count as of 1/26/2008. We get this by
// call DaysBetween function to number of days between today and 7/2/2007
var num_days = DaysBetween(today_date, end_date)
// calculate number of denoms
// assumes on 7/2/2007 there were 39000
// assumes by 1/1/2025 there will be 55000
var num_denoms = 39000.0 + (2.502737369 * num_days)
For the
facts and stats see here. From a letter by the Gordon Conwell people who professionally catalog and keep all the current stats on denominations.
Thank you for your inquiry. I can assure you that the figure of 39,000 is in no way inflated. This number represents our most current, up-to-date data. As we are constantly updating this figure, it is not published in print form. The figure of 33,800 from the year 2000 was printed in our book
World Christian Trends, (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2001). Part 12 of World Christian Trends (WCT), Table 12-1 gives figures of denominational totals for all 238 countries of the world. These figures are also represented graphically in WCT on page 917, Global Map 14. The definition for denominations used in WCT, and also in our publication
World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford, 2001) is as follows:
“Any agency consisting of a number of congregations or churches voluntarily aligning themselves with it. As a statistical unit in this survey, a ‘denomination’ always refers to one single country. Thus the Roman Catholic Church, although a single organization, is described here as consisting of 236 denominations in the world’s 238 countries.”
More precise listings of denominations can be found in the
World Christian Encyclopedia, under the article for each country. These lists are not exhaustive, as there are too many small denominations to list separately, but they should help give a clearer picture. Furthermore, the Southern Baptist Convention has over 40,000 congregations in the US alone; not to mention the Baptist General Conference, Baptist Bible Fellowship International, etc. So we are definitely not counting each congregation as its own denomination. We are also not lumping all Baptists into a single denomination, but counting each organization separately. I hope this information helps.
Phil P
