How many Catholic adherents? How many for each denomination? How many for ALL?

[BobRyan]

According to official statistics, about 21 million people worldwide attended Jehovah's Witnesses' 2024 observance of the Memorial of Christ's death (also termed the Lord's Evening Meal).

Demographics of Jehovah's Witnesses - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There are also about 18 millions of Mormons worldwide.

To be "about 20 million people" worldwide is not so extraordinary, for international religious organizations.

Adventists at around 23 or 24 Million are stated to be "the 5th largest" Christian denomination in the world in a Christianity Today 2015 article.

Which means 18 million people for Mormons (while not the top) is a pretty good size. It is larger than the Southern Baptist organization - and I think a lot of people are familiar with that one.

21 Million "Attending" numbers (in the case of Jehovah's Witnesses above) can be a little complicated. Adventist "attending" numbers in some countries outside the USA - are larger than our actual membership. That is the case in areas that are rapidly growing.

 

[BobRyan]

There are some C& E Catholics ie. Christmas & Easter Catholics only. There are some who identify as Catholic but do not practice the faith. 43%? That's an awfully high number.

I think it's pretty hard to get an EXACT number.

Agreed - hard to get an accurate number.

Numbers are complicated by a few thing.
1. Bad system/method of record keeping -- so for example a person counted as Catholic member because of infant baptism 40 years ago, still counted as Catholic even though they have long since become a member of another Christian denomination.

2. Some countries have a "state religion" where all citizens are counted as Catholic even if they are not.

AI said: "In countries where Catholicism is the state religion, such as Malta, Vatican City, and Monaco, citizens are often considered members of the Church by virtue of their citizenship. While some individuals may not actively practice their faith, their membership is generally recognized and considered part of the Church's numerical data."

But for my purposes on this thread - counting adherents/members I don't care if Catholic numbers include C&E as long as that person considers him/her self to be a Catholic.

 

[RileyG]

you are the sort of person that we would like to see for that entire 1.4 B number they are giving out. IT would be 100% accurate in that case.

LOL! Again, I’m not sure how accurate it is.

 

[RileyG]

Agreed - hard to get an accurate number.

Numbers are complicated by a few thing.
1. Bad system/method of record keeping -- so for example a person counted as Catholic member because of infant baptism 40 years ago, still counted as Catholic even though they have long since become a member of another Christian denomination.

2. Some countries have a "state religion" where all citizens are counted as Catholic even if they are not.

AI said: "In countries where Catholicism is the state religion, such as Malta, Vatican City, and Monaco, citizens are often considered members of the Church by virtue of their citizenship. While some individuals may not actively practice their faith, their membership is generally recognized and considered part of the Church's numerical data."

But for my purposes on this thread - counting adherents/members I don't care if Catholic numbers include C&E as long as that person considers him/her self to be a Catholic.

That’s very true.

 

[trophy33]

Adventists at around 23 or 24 Million are stated to be "the 5th largest" Christian denomination in the world in a Christianity Today 2015 article.

Sounds like some nonsense.

Catholic Church: ~1.4 billion members.

Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, about 644 million adherents globally.

Eastern Orthodox Church approximately 220 to 260 million baptized members.

Anglican Communion, with approximately 97 million members worldwide.

Baptist churches, totaling around 84 million members globally.

United and Uniting Churches, about 78 million members.

Presbyterians, Reformed, and Congregational churches, roughly 70 million members.

Lutheran churches, close to 70 million members.

Oriental Orthodox Churches have about 50 million members worldwide.

Methodist and Holiness movement churches, around 46 million members.

Also, many smaller, rather local denominations combine various reformed traditions, so they could partially be also counted to those, even though they have no official connection to for example the Lutheran church or the Reformed churches.