International Bulletin
of Missionary Research
Vol. 37, No. 1
January 2013
pp. 32–33
Christianity 2013: Renewalists and Faith and Migration
This two-page report is the twenty-ninth in an annual series in the IBMR. The series began three years after the publication of the first edition of David Barrett’s World Christian Encyclopedia (WCE, Oxford Univ. Press, 1982). Its purpose is to present a one-page update of the most significant global and regional statistics presented in the WCE. The WCE itself was expanded into a second edition in 2001 and accompanied by an analytic volume, World Christian Trends (WCT, William Carey Library, 2001). In 2003 an online database, World Christian Database (WCD, later published by Brill), was launched, updating most of the statistics in the WCE and WCT. The Atlas of Global Christianity (Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2009), based on these data, was featured throughout 2010, most notably at the various centennial celebrations of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference.
Counting Renewalists
In 2006 the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published the report Spirit and Power: A Ten-Country Survey of Pentecostals (www.pewforum.org/christian/evangelical-protestant-churches/spirit-and-power.aspx). While the survey did not yield a new figure for the number of Pentecostals globally, it did constitute the first professional census of Pentecostalism outside the Western world. In 2010, in partnership with the Pew Forum, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) embarked on a new assessment of Pentecostalism that would count adherents in every country of the world. While this project borrowed many of the demographic and taxonomic categories established in earlier studies, a number of changes were made. First, the term “wave” was abandoned for the less descriptive term “type.” Thus, the three types in the CSGC assessment correspond roughly to the earlier “waves.” The three types together—Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Independent Charismatics (line 27)—were labeled “Renewalists.” Second, six new fields for each denomination show the percentage and total number of affiliated Christians participating in the Renewal in 1970, 2000, and 2005, published online in the WCD (Brill Online, www.worldchristiandatabase.org). Third, sources were recorded for estimates for each denomination and for each percentage of that denomination considered Pentecostal or Charismatic. These figures will eventually be published online as well.
The results of the CSGC’s study are available in the Pew Forum’s report Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population (www.pewforum.org/christian/global-christianity-worlds-christian-population.aspx). Geographic and demographic changes in global Christianity have occurred in tandem with a flourishing of Renewalist enthusiasm in virtually all traditions within Christianity. Alternately called Pentecostal or Charismatic, Renewalist movements grew from just under one million adherents in 1900 to 63 million by 1970 and 628 million by 2013. They are projected to grow to 828 million adherents by 2025 (line 27). As a percentage of all Christians, they will have grown (over the same time period) from 0.2 percent (1900) to 5.1 percent (1970) to 26.7 percent (2013) to a projected 30.6 percent (2025). The growth of the movement now stands at 2.43 percent per year, roughly double the 1.32 percent annual rate for all Christians (line 10).
Faith and Migration
Two studies examining religion and migration globally were produced in 2013. The first was the Pew Forum’s March 2013 report Faith on the Move: The Religious Affiliation of International Migrants (www.pewforum.org/faith-on-the-move.aspx). According to estimates by the U.N. Population Division, which Pew used in its report, the total number of international migrants living around the world has grown substantially over the past fifty years, climbing from about 80 million people in 1960 to about 214 million in 2010, a rise in percentage of the world’s population from 2.6 to 3.1. One of the striking findings of the Pew report was that Christians and Muslims make up a disproportionate number of global migrants. Christians constitute nearly half (49 percent) of the world’s 214 million migrants, whereas Muslims make up the second largest share, at 27 percent. Thus, together they make up 76 percent of the world’s migrants, even though they represent only 55 percent of the world’s population.
The second study on faith and migration was an analysis by Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Bellofatto titled “Migration, Religious Diasporas, and Religious Diversity: A Global Survey” (Mission Studies 29 [July 2013]: 3–22). Utilizing the taxonomies of religions and peoples from the WCD and the World Religion Database (www.worldreligiondatabase.org), their preliminary examination of religious diasporas (settled migrants, in contrast to Pew’s current migrants) showed 859 million people (12.5 percent of the global population) from 327 ethnolinguistic peoples in diasporas around the world. Similar to the Pew study, their results showed that while Christians and Muslims make up 55.3 percent of the world’s population, they represent 72.8 percent of all people in diaspora. In addition, the continuing trend of religious migration around the world is both increasing and intensifying religious diversity, especially in the former “Christian West.” The authors suggest that Christians should strive to learn more about other religions, learn how to be civil, and learn to practice hospitality.
Methodology
The methodology behind figures such as the ones in this table and those produced by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is the subject of a forthcoming book on religious demography: The World’s Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography, by Todd M. Johnson and Brian J. Grim (Wiley-Blackwell). This volume addresses the rationale, techniques, and specific problems associated with counting religionists around the world. Sources of data on religion are examined, and the dynamics of religious change are analyzed. The burgeoning field of religious demography is then set in the context of foreign policy, development, health, education, and a host of other fields. This book, we trust, will help to answer many questions about where our figures come from and how they can best be used.
Status of Global Mission, 2013, in the Context of AD 1800–2025
(Click here for printer friendly version.)
| 1800 | 1900 | 1970 | mid-2000 | Trend % p.a. |
24-hour change |
mid-2013 | 2025 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GLOBAL POPULATION | ||||||||||
| 1. | Total population | 903,650,000 | 1,619,626,000 | 3,696,186,000 | 6,122,770,000 | 1.18 | 230,000 | 7,130,014,000 | 8,002,978,000 | |
| 2. | Urban dwellers (urbanites) | 36,146,000 | 232,695,000 | 1,342,451,000 | 2,849,489,000 | 2.00 | 202,000 | 3,684,976,000 | 4,549,674,000 | |
| 3. | Rural dwellers | 867,504,000 | 1,386,931,000 | 2,353,735,000 | 3,273,281,000 | 0.39 | 28,000 | 3,445,038,000 | 3,453,304,000 | |
| 4. | Adult population (over 15s) | 619,000,000 | 1,073,646,000 | 2,312,042,000 | 4,272,601,000 | 1.58 | 227,000 | 5,240,961,000 | 6,087,748,000 | |
| 5. | Literates | 123,800,000 | 296,153,000 | 1,476,151,000 | 3,275,110,000 | 2.12 | 249,000 | 4,301,052,000 | 5,131,500,000 | |
| 6. | Nonliterates | 495,200,000 | 777,493,000 | 835,891,000 | 997,491,000 | -0.46 | -22,000 | 939,909,000 | 956,248,000 | |
| WORLDWIDE EXPANSION OF CITIES | ||||||||||
| 7. | Megacities (over 1 million population) | 1 | 20 | 161 | 402 | 1.92 | – | 515 | 650 | |
| 8. | Urban poor | 18 million | 100 million | 650 million | 1,400 million | 3.09 | 176,000 | 2,080 million | 3,000 million | |
| 9. | Urban slum dwellers | 3 million | 20 million | 260 million | 700 million | 3.39 | 100,000 | 1,080 million | 1,600 million | |
| GLOBAL POPULATION BY RELIGION | ||||||||||
| 10. | Christians (total all kinds) (=World C) | 204,980,000 | 558,131,000 | 1,228,972,000 | 1,984,919,000 | 1.32 | 85,000 | 2,354,523,000 | 2,707,492,000 | |
| 11. | Muslims | 90,500,000 | 199,818,000 | 577,228,000 | 1,290,830,000 | 1.84 | 82,000 | 1,635,314,000 | 1,972,304,000 | |
| 12. | Hindus | 108,000,000 | 202,973,000 | 463,216,000 | 825,060,000 | 1.35 | 36,000 | 982,329,000 | 1,104,295,000 | |
| 13. | Nonreligious (agnostics) | 300,000 | 3,029,000 | 542,632,000 | 655,247,000 | 0.33 | 6,200 | 684,193,000 | 701,091,000 | |
| 14. | Buddhists | 69,400,000 | 126,956,000 | 235,094,000 | 448,303,000 | 0.99 | 13,800 | 509,668,000 | 561,421,000 | |
| 15. | Chinese folk-religionists | 310,000,000 | 379,974,000 | 227,822,000 | 427,765,000 | 0.10 | 1,100 | 433,144,000 | 418,602,000 | |
| 16. | Ethnoreligionists | 92,000,000 | 117,437,000 | 168,876,000 | 218,173,000 | 0.82 | 5,500 | 242,745,000 | 238,611,000 | |
| 17. | Atheists | 10,000 | 226,000 | 165,506,000 | 135,893,000 | 0.02 | 100 | 136,219,000 | 132,036,000 | |
| 18. | New-Religionists (Neoreligionists) | 0 | 5,986,000 | 39,382,000 | 61,179,000 | 0.28 | 500 | 63,448,000 | 63,908,000 | |
| 19. | Sikhs | 1,800,000 | 2,962,000 | 10,678,000 | 20,628,000 | 1.54 | 1,100 | 25,166,000 | 29,518,000 | |
| 20. | Jews | 9,000,000 | 12,292,000 | 13,500,000 | 13,745,000 | 0.52 | 200 | 14,700,000 | 15,000,000 | |
| 21. | Non-Christians (=Worlds A and B) | 698,670,000 | 1,061,495,000 | 2,467,214,000 | 4,137,851,000 | 1.11 | 145,000 | 4,775,491,000 | 5,295,486,000 | |
| GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY | ||||||||||
| 22. | Total Christians as % of world (=World C) | 22.7 | 34.5 | 33.2 | 32.4 | 0.14 | – | 33.0 | 33.8 | |
| 23. | Affiliated Christians (church members) | 195,680,000 | 521,683,000 | 1,119,574,000 | 1,885,574,000 | 1.35 | 83,000 | 2,244,908,000 | 2,597,079,000 | |
| 24. | Church attenders | 180,100,000 | 469,303,000 | 885,777,000 | 1,359,420,000 | 1.04 | 44,000 | 1,555,067,000 | 1,760,568,000 | |
| 25. | Evangelicals | 25,000,000 | 71,728,000 | 95,044,000 | 228,152,000 | 2.28 | 19,000 | 305,674,000 | 393,468,000 | |
| 26. | Great Commission Christians | 21,000,000 | 77,924,000 | 276,680,000 | 597,320,000 | 1.25 | 24,000 | 702,422,000 | 833,927,000 | |
| 27. | Pentecostals/Charismatics/Neocharismatics | 10,000 | 981,000 | 62,685,000 | 459,840,000 | 2.43 | 42,000 | 628,186,000 | 828,027,000 | |
| 28. | Christian martyrs per year (10-year average) | 2,500 | 34,400 | 377,000 | 160,000 | -3.55 | 270 | 100,000 | 150,000 | |
| MEMBERSHIP BY 6 ECCLESIASTICAL MEGABLOCS | ||||||||||
| 29. | Roman Catholics | 106,430,000 | 266,566,000 | 664,987,000 | 1,043,506,000 | 1.10 | 36,000 | 1,202,308,000 | 1,322,538,000 | |
| 30. | Protestants | 30,980,000 | 103,028,000 | 207,609,000 | 351,847,000 | 1.73 | 21,000 | 439,565,000 | 530,869,000 | |
| 31. | Independents | 400,000 | 7,931,000 | 85,290,000 | 272,634,000 | 2.37 | 24,000 | 369,619,000 | 493,954,000 | |
| 32. | Orthodox | 55,220,000 | 115,855,000 | 144,247,000 | 257,015,000 | 0.65 | 5,000 | 279,547,000 | 291,492,000 | |
| 33. | Anglicans | 11,910,000 | 30,578,000 | 47,408,000 | 74,892,000 | 1.57 | 4,000 | 91,707,000 | 112,983,000 | |
| 34. | Marginal Christians | 40,000 | 928,000 | 11,121,000 | 29,007,000 | 2.05 | 2,000 | 37,765,000 | 50,819,000 | |
| MEMBERSHIP BY 6 CONTINENTS, 21 UN REGIONS | ||||||||||
| 35. | Africa (5 regions) | 4,330,000 | 8,736,000 | 115,629,000 | 361,517,000 | 2.68 | 37,000 | 509,579,000 | 687,763,000 | |
| 36. | Asia (4 regions) | 8,350,000 | 20,774,000 | 91,330,000 | 271,244,000 | 2.31 | 23,000 | 365,063,000 | 476,475,000 | |
| 37. | Europe (including Russia; 4 regions) | 171,700,000 | 368,254,000 | 466,987,000 | 546,098,000 | 0.22 | 3,000 | 562,258,000 | 555,992,000 | |
| 38. | Latin America (3 regions) | 14,900,000 | 60,027,000 | 262,793,000 | 476,366,000 | 1.19 | 18,000 | 555,621,000 | 610,247,000 | |
| 39. | Northern America (1 region) | 5,600,000 | 59,570,000 | 168,372,000 | 209,243,000 | 0.65 | 4,000 | 227,589,000 | 238,452,000 | |
| 40. | Oceania (4 regions) | 100,000 | 4,323,000 | 14,464,000 | 21,107,000 | 1.25 | 1,000 | 24,798,000 | 28,150,000 | |
| CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS | ||||||||||
| 41. | Denominations | 500 | 1,600 | 18,800 | 34,200 | 1.96 | 2.4 | 44,000 | 55,000 | |
| 42. | Congregations (worship centers) | 150,000 | 400,000 | 1,416,000 | 3,400,000 | 2.40 | 300 | 4,629,000 | 7,500,000 | |
| 43. | Service agencies | 600 | 1,500 | 14,100 | 23,000 | 1.80 | 1.4 | 29,000 | 36,000 | |
| 44. | Foreign-mission sending agencies | 200 | 600 | 2,200 | 4,000 | 1.57 | 0.2 | 4,900 | 6,000 | |
| CONCILIARISM: ONGOING COUNCILS OF CHURCHES | ||||||||||
| 45. | Confessional councils (CWCs, at world level) | 20 | 40 | 150 | 310 | 1.16 | – | 360 | 600 | |
| 46. | National councils of churches | 0 | 19 | 283 | 598 | 1.50 | – | 730 | 870 | |
| CHRISTIAN WORKERS (clergy, laypersons) | ||||||||||
| 47. | Nationals (citizens; all denominations) | 900,000 | 2,100,000 | 4,600,000 | 10,900,000 | 0.98 | 333 | 12,376,000 | 14,000,000 | |
| 48. | Men | 800,000 | 1,900,000 | 3,100,000 | 6,540,000 | 0.91 | 182 | 7,353,000 | 8,000,000 | |
| 49. | Women | 100,000 | 200,000 | 1,500,000 | 4,360,000 | 1.09 | 150 | 5,023,000 | 6,000,000 | |
| 50. | Aliens (foreign missionaries) | 25,000 | 62,000 | 240,000 | 420,000 | 0.11 | 1 | 426,000 | 550,000 | |
| CHRISTIAN FINANCE (in US$, per year) | ||||||||||
| 51. | Personal income of church members | 40 billion | 270 billion | 4,100 billion | 17,000 billion | 5.30 | 91 billion | 33,270 billion | 50,000 billion | |
| 52. | Giving to Christian causes | 1 billion | 8 billion | 70 billion | 300 billion | 5.39 | 1.6 billion | 594 billion | 900 billion | |
| 53. | Churches' income | 950 million | 7 billion | 50 billion | 120 billion | 5.36 | 650 million | 237 billion | 360 billion | |
| 54. | Parachurch and institutional income | 50 million | 1 billion | 20 billion | 180 billion | 5.41 | 980 million | 357 billion | 540 billion | |
| 55. | Cost-effectiveness (cost per baptism) | 7,500 | 17,500 | 128,000 | 330,000 | 6.07 | 118 | 710,000 | 1,440,000 | |
| 56. | Ecclesiastical crime | 100,000 | 300,000 | 5 million | 18 billion | 5.79 | 100 million | 37 billion | 60 billion | |
| 57. | Income of global foreign missions | 25 million | 200 million | 3 billion | 17 billion | 5.46 | 90 million | 33 billion | 50 billion | |
| 58. | Computers in Christian use (numbers) | 0 | 0 | 1,000 | 328 million | 5.28 | 93,000 | 640 million | 1,200 million | |
| CHRISTIAN LITERATURE (titles, not copies) | ||||||||||
| 59. | Books about Christianity | 75,000 | 300,000 | 1,800,000 | 4,800,000 | 3.70 | 800 | 7,700,000 | 11,800,000 | |
| 60. | Christian periodicals | 800 | 3,500 | 23,000 | 35,000 | 4.23 | 7 | 60,000 | 100,000 | |
| SCRIPTURE DISTRIBUTION (all sources, per year) | ||||||||||
| 61. | Bibles | 500,000 | 5,452,600 | 25,000,000 | 53,700,000 | 2.91 | 214,000 | 78,000,000 | 110,000,000 | |
| 62. | Scriptures including gospels, selections | 1,500,000 | 20 million | 281 million | 4,600 million | 1.07 | 14 million | 4,990 million | 6,000 million | |
| 63. | Bible density (copies in place) | 20 million | 108 million | 443 million | 1,400 million | 1.95 | 96,000 | 1,800 million | 2,280 million | |
| CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING | ||||||||||
| 64. | Total monthly listeners/viewers | 0 | 0 | 750 million | 1,830 million | 1.14 | 66,000 | 2,120 million | 2,400 million | |
| CHRISTIAN URBAN MISSION | ||||||||||
| 65. | Non-Christian megacities | 1 | 5 | 65 | 226 | 1.23 | – | 265 | 300 | |
| 66. | New non-Christian urban dwellers per day | 500 | 5,200 | 51,100 | 120,000 | 0.19 | 0.6 | 123,000 | 126,000 | |
| 67. | Urban Christians | 5,500,000 | 159,600,000 | 660,800,000 | 1,228,933,000 | 1.58 | 65,100 | 1,506,426,000 | 1,801,106,000 | |
| GLOBAL EVANGELISM (per year) | ||||||||||
| 68. | Evangelism-hours | 600 million | 5 billion | 25 billion | 165 billion | 0.16 | 460 million | 168 billion | 300 billion | |
| 69. | Hearer-hours (offers) | 900 million | 10 billion | 99 billion | 938 billion | 1.92 | 3.3 billion | 1,200 billion | 3,000 billion | |
| 70. | Disciple-opportunities (offers) per capita | 1 | 6 | 27 | 153 | 0.73 | 0.5 | 168 | 375 | |
| WORLD EVANGELIZATION | ||||||||||
| 71. | Unevangelized population (=World A) | 674,350,000 | 880,122,000 | 1,653,168,000 | 1,833,051,000 | 0.98 | 56,000 | 2,080,397,000 | 2,261,576,000 | |
| 72. | Unevangelized as % of world | 74.6 | 54.3 | 44.7 | 29.9 | -0.20 | – | 29.2 | 28.3 | |
| 73. | World evangelization plans since AD 30 | 160 | 250 | 510 | 1,500 | 2.99 | 0.2 | 2,200 | 3,000 | |
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