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

[BobRyan]

In this season of seeing the Catholic Church elect a new Pope - one thing that keeps surfacing in the news is that there are 1.4 billion Catholics.

Then recently I saw a program where two non-Catholics were talking -- saying that they are counted as part of the 1.4 billion Catholics since they were born into a Catholic home and Catholicism is one of the infant-baptism groups.

ask AI - reports this
"It's difficult to provide an exact number of Catholics who have switched to non-Catholic denominations. However, Pew Research Center data indicates that 43% of those raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic."

It is difficult for any denomination to track the actual number of people currently members of their group - because people switch denominations, some decide not to be Christian at all or join non-Christian groups entirely - Muslim, Hindu etc.

But if the AI statement above is anywhere near representative for the Catholic Church - then 60% of that 1.4 billion number is closer to reality.

I think the denominations that practice believer's baptism may be slightly more accurate in what their numbers actually are.

But then there is also another layer of accuracy where some denominations remove a person's name from the books if that person can no longer be located by the local church that claims to hold their membership.

So this begs the question in general - what is the real true number of Christians in the world (not just what is the real number for a given denomination".

We tend to say 2 billion Christians world wide - but how close is that number to reality? (is it off by 30%? 50%)?

 

[chevyontheriver]

In this season of seeing the Catholic Church elect a new Pope - one thing that keeps surfacing in the news is that there are 1.4 billion Catholics.

Then recently I saw a program where two non-Catholics were talking -- saying that they are counted as part of the 1.4 billion Catholics since they were born into a Catholic home in this is one of the infant-baptism groups.

ask AI - reports this
"It's difficult to provide an exact number of Catholics who have switched to non-Catholic denominations. However, Pew Research Center data indicates that 43% of those raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic."

It is difficult for any denomination to track the actual number of people currently members of their group - because people switch denominations, some decide not to be Christian at all or join non-Christian groups entirely - Muslim, Hindu etc.

But if the AI statement above is anywhere near representative for the Catholic Church - then 60% of that 1.4 billion number is closer to reality.

I think the denominations that practice believer's baptism may be slightly more accurate in what their numbers actually are.

But then there is also another layer of accuracy where some denominations remove a person's name from the books if that person can no longer be located by the local church that claims to hold their membership.

So this begs the question in general - what is the real true number of Christians in the world (not just what is the real number for a given denomination".

We tend to say 2 billion Christians world wide - but how close is that number to reality? (is if off by 30%)?

Well, you would have to ask them all.

And you better have your questions set because the way you ask the questions determines the answers you get.

So, what question do you ask?

 

[BobRyan]

So, what question do you ask?

1. Are you currently a Catholic Christian ..
2. do you view the Pope as the head of the church/denomination that you attend/are-a-member-of?

Or ....

If you identify as a Christian -- What church/denomination are you currently a member of?

 

[FireDragon76]

In this season of seeing the Catholic Church elect a new Pope - one thing that keeps surfacing in the news is that there are 1.4 billion Catholics.

Then recently I saw a program where two non-Catholics were talking -- saying that they are counted as part of the 1.4 billion Catholics since they were born into a Catholic home in this is one of the infant-baptism groups.

ask AI - reports this
"It's difficult to provide an exact number of Catholics who have switched to non-Catholic denominations. However, Pew Research Center data indicates that 43% of those raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic."

It is difficult for any denomination to track the actual number of people currently members of their group - because people switch denominations, some decide not to be Christian at all or join non-Christian groups entirely - Muslim, Hindu etc.

But if the AI statement above is anywhere near representative for the Catholic Church - then 60% of that 1.4 billion number is closer to reality.

I think the denominations that practice believer's baptism may be slightly more accurate in what their numbers actually are.

There are alot of nominal Christians among Baptists, too.

But then there is also another layer of accuracy where some denominations remove a person's name from the books if that person can no longer be located by the local church that claims to hold their membership.

So this begs the question in general - what is the real true number of Christians in the world (not just what is the real number for a given denomination".

We tend to say 2 billion Christians world wide - but how close is that number to reality? (is if off by 30%)?

It's probably more or less accurate in terms of self-reporting. Catholicism is huge. Prior to modernity, many Christians were infrequent church attendees, too, just like today. Frequent church attendance wasn't mandated until the Counter-Reformation.

 

[BobRyan]

There are alot of nominal Christians among Baptists, too.

True. This thread is not intended to point to any one denomination as having no one who has an issue.

 

[chevyontheriver]

1. Are you currently a Catholic Christian ..
2. do you view the Pope as the head of the church/denomination that you attend/are-a-member-of?

Or ....

If you identify as a Christian -- What church/denomination are you currently a member of?

Pollsters are slowly becoming more saavy about all of this. For example, they now often ask a follow-up question of Catholics, which is 'how often do you go to mass?'. Turns out self-identified Catholics come in multiple flavors, including a popular flavor that hardly ever darkens the door of a church but still say they are Catholic. And funny but they are counted as 'Catholic' though they aren't discernibly active at all. Your questions miss that distinction. Don't know if you wanted to make that distinction though.

 

[BobRyan]

Pollsters are slowly becoming more saavy about all of this. For example, they now often ask a follow-up question of Catholics, which is 'how often do you go to mass?'. Turns out self-identified Catholics come in multiple flavors, including a popular flavor that hardly ever darkens the door of a church but still say they are Catholic

When it comes to "accuracy" I am not too concerned that someone who still identifies as Catholic almost never goes to church. I consider it valid to count them as Catholic and not atheist, or Baptist, or Hindu etc. But I also agree it would be nice to know across the board how many practicing Christians there are in the world.

. And funny but they are counted as 'Catholic' though they aren't discernibly active at all. Your questions miss that distinction. Don't know if you wanted to make that distinction though.

yeah I was not looking for that. I am just looking at the 1.4B number itself because if that number is over-inflating the number of people today who identify as Catholic by 40% or more that is one problem. If over half of that 40% are actually active members of other Christian denominations and so they show up multiple times in the total count.. well the numbers become less useful.

 

[Freth]

Interesting note... I was looking at some numbers, and Seventh-day Adventists are 23 million or thereabouts. If this is true, we are much more prominent than other denominations give us credit for. We have higher numbers than many denominations. And, as was shown in another thread, we are the most diverse by far. I suspect the numbers are closer than other denominations would like to admit. In another thread on this same forum, we aren't even listed as a part of the major Protestant denominations, despite the fact that we are a large denomination. It's like they don't want to acknowledge that we exist.