How many denominations in the us

Generic filters Hidden label. Hidden label. At the risk of over-simplifying we can identify several of these factors that led to many denominations: Fresh Biblical Insight : A denomination will form when a group of Christians discerns teaching in Scripture that they believe other Christians have overlooked. The new group will find the scriptural teaching so compelling that they find it necessary to form a new grouping of Christians. In time this group forms a new denomination. During the reformation Protestants found justification by faith so central to apostolic Christianity that they could not remain in fellowship with the broader Roman Catholic Church.

Biblical Primitivism : This is a subset of the last point. Congregationalists sought to reduplicate the New Testament pattern of autonomous churches operating directly under the apostolic authority of the Word. Pentecostals sought to reduplicate the New Testament practice of speaking in tongues.

Political Changes : Sometimes denominations form because of changes related to the political climate of the host nation To a significant degree, Anglicanism arose when Henry VIII found it expedient for the English church to break ties with the Roman Catholic Church.

To be clear, this was a reference to the number of church buildings, not the number of denominations or congregations. And honestly I had no real idea. There are currently between 2. While this includes many semi- and minimally active members, it begs the question, exactly how many church buildings would be needed to accommodate this entire number? I did the math, and estimating that a typical church could accommodate an average of around three hundred people at a time, that would mean there were around eight million church buildings on Earth.

According to quora. With an estimated If this ratio is projected to the whole world, that gives us a much more down to earth figure of 3. However, the United States is famous for its very large congregations, which could skew the numbers. This is especially true where megachurches are concerned, as these routinely have regularly attending congregations in the thousands.

Based on the above very rough analysis, I estimate that there are probably between eight and sixteen million church buildings in the world. Which brings us to a logical follow-up question: How many denominations of Christianity are there in the world?

Click here for next page. Howard Kramer is the creator and author of The Complete Pilgrim. He first took an interest in religious sites in his early twenties when traveling through Italy after college. Howard has been writing about religious sites for the better part of the last decade, and The Complete Pilgrim is a culmination of years of his work and passion.

I think the reason there is so many churches is a lot harder to the wrong thing then the right thing. It is easier to start a new church to justify the the wrong way.

It is hard to turn the orther cheek. In reality, many new churches are created over power struggles. The approximate number of Christian denominations in the United States was my search criteria. I am not searching for an exact number, but an approximate range would be a good to know.

I think its basically because every independent church, which includes most Baptist and Non-Denominational Churches, are counted as individual denominations.

The graph is incredibly misleading. Peter was first pope, and picked his successor himself, Pope Linus, also mentioned in Scripture. There has been no break away by the Catholic Church, and She alone has survived every empire and attempt to overthrow Her. The Catholic Church was not a result of the schism, as shown here in 11th century. The red bar should have been depicted at the very beginning. Every single denomination flows from the Catholic Church. God bless. Your point is correct sort of.

There is no doubt that the Roman Catholic Church grew directly out of the early Church, along with several of the Orthodox Churches. Jerome completed the Vulgate in the 4th century. The study was conducted in English and Spanish, which means that groups with above-average numbers of people who do not speak English or Spanish such as immigrants from Asia, Africa and other parts of the world may be underrepresented. The Religious Landscape Study finds that 0. An additional 1. The religiously unaffiliated population — including all of its constituent subgroups — has grown rapidly as a share of the overall U.

The share of self-identified atheists has nearly doubled in size since , from 1. Agnostics have grown from 2. How many Americans are evangelical Christians? The answer depends on how evangelicalism is being defined. There are a number of ways this can be done. The approach taken in the Religious Landscape Study, for example, focuses only on Protestants.

It looks at the denominations and congregations with which Protestants identify, and determines whether these denominations and congregations are part of the evangelical Protestant tradition, mainline Protestant tradition or historically black Protestant tradition.

Those who belong to denominations and churches that are part of the evangelical Protestant tradition such as the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God and many nondenominational churches are categorized as evangelical Protestants in the study; those who belong to denominations or churches in the other two Protestant traditions are not.

Using this approach, the study finds that Another way to identify evangelicals is to ask people whether they consider themselves evangelical or born-again Christians. The share of self-described born-again or evangelical Christians is very similar to what it was in , even though the overall Christian share of the population has declined. When Catholics, Mormons and other non-Protestants are excluded, the study finds that three-in-ten U. Another way to define evangelical Protestants is to identify a set of religious beliefs or practices that are central to evangelicalism, and then assess how many people profess those beliefs or engage in those practices.

When measured this way, the size of the evangelical population depends on the particular beliefs and practices that are used to define the category. While this type of analysis is beyond the scope of the Religious Landscape Study, a forthcoming report will examine the beliefs and practices of major religious groups and their views on social and political issues.

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.

Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Newsletters Donate My Account.

Research Topics. Measuring and Categorizing Protestantism American Protestantism is diverse, encompassing more than a dozen major denominational families — such as Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans and Pentecostals — all with unique beliefs, practices and histories. The Terminology of Religious Identity. Of course, some denominations are difficult to classify, and other researchers may prefer to employ alternative strategies for categorizing denominations into religious traditions or use different criteria for sorting respondents who offer a vague religious identity.

As with all Pew Research Center surveys, the raw dataset from the Religious Landscape Study will be made freely available to scholars and others wishing to conduct secondary analysis, providing the opportunity to explore new and innovative approaches to categorizing religion and yielding new insights in this important area.