Distribution of Christians

Many religions, including the three most widely practiced universalizing religions, are divided into congregations, denominations, and branches. A congregation is a local assembly of persons brought together for common religious worship. A denomination unites a number of local congregations in a single legal and administrative body. A branch is a large and fundamental division within a religion.

Christianity has three major branches: Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox. In addition, many Christians belong to churches that do not consider themselves to be within any of these three branches. Roman Catholics comprise approximately 50 percent of the world’s Christians and Orthodox around 12 percent. The other 38 percent of the world’s Christians are divided between Protestants and others, but sources do not agree on the magnitude of each. The Encyclopaedia Britannica classifies 24 percent of the world’s Christians as Protestant and 14 percent as other, whereas Pew classifies 37 percent as Protestant and only 1 percent as other.

Distribution of Branches In Europe

Overall in Europe, 47 percent of Christians are Roman Catholic, 18 percent are Protestant, and 35 percent are Orthodox. Roman Catholicism is the most widely practiced branch of Christianity in the southwest and east of Europe, Protestantism in the northwest, and Orthodoxy in the east and southeast.

Most Numerous Religions and Branches In Europe

The regions of Roman Catholic and Protestant majorities frequently have sharp boundaries, even when they run through the middle of countries. For example, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland have approximately equal percentages of Roman Catholics and Protestants, but the Roman Catholic populations are concentrated in the south of these countries and the Protestant populations in the north.

A sharp boundary can even run through the middle of a city. Belfast, Northern Ireland, is about evenly divided between Roman Catholics and Protestants. But the two groups are highly segregated. Nearly all Roman Catholics live on the west side

Belfast is located on the island of Eire (Ireland). The entire island was an English colony for many centuries and was made part of the United Kingdom in 1801. Following a succession of bloody confrontations, the Republic of Ireland achieved independence in 1937. However, a majority in the northern part of Eire, including Belfast, voted to remain in the United Kingdom (see Chapter 7). The Republic of Ireland is 78 percent Roman Catholic, whereas Northern Ireland is 42 percent Protestant and 41 percent Roman Catholic.

Within Northern Ireland, Roman Catholics were long victimized by discriminatory practices, such as exclusion from higher-paying jobs and better schools. Campaigns to end discrimination led to three decades of violence beginning in the 1960s, a period known as “the Troubles,” during which more than 3,000 people died. A 1998 peace agreement, which provided for the two religious groups to share power, has reduced the level of violence since 1999. However, most Roman Catholics and Protestants continue to live in segregated neighborhoods within Belfast.

Distribution of Branches In the Western Hemisphere

Christianity is by far the most widely practiced religion in the Western Hemisphere. Christians comprise 86 percent of the population of the Western Hemisphere. This includes 90 percent of Latin Americans and 75 percent of North Americans. People unaffiliated with any religion comprise 8 percent of Latin Americans and 19 percent of North Americans.

At the regional scale within the Western Hemisphere, a sharp boundary exists between North America and Latin America in the predominant branches of Christianity. Roman Catholics comprise 81 percent of Christians in Latin America and 32 percent in North America, whereas Protestants comprise 18 percent of Christians in Latin America and 63 percent in North America.

The diversity of faiths in the United States is displayed in the table below. Roman Catholics comprise 21 percent of the U.S. population, Evangelical Protestants 25 percent, Mainline Protestants 15 percent, historically black churches 7 percent, Latter-day Saints and other Christians 2 percent each, and other faiths 6 percent

Religions of The United States, 2014

The Southern Baptist Convention is the most numerous Evangelical Protestant church, and Methodist is the most numerous Mainline Protestant church. Roman Catholics are more numerous in the Northeast and Southwest, whereas Evangelical Protestants are most numerous in the Southeast. Around 23 percent of Americans are unaffiliated, and most of them respond that they are “nothing in particular.”

Most of the historically black congregations and churches formed before 1800 were founded by free blacks. After slavery was abolished, segregationist attitudes among whites discouraged and even prevented African Americans from worshiping in the same churches as whites. African Americans most often established congregations and church facilities separate from their white neighbors. These new churches created communities and worship practices that were culturally distinct from other churches, including unique and empowering forms of Christianity that combined elements of Christian and African spiritual traditions.

Other less numerous faiths have distinctive distributions within the United States. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) regard their church as separate from the three branches of Christianity. About 2 percent of Americans are members of the Latter-day Saints, and a large percentage is clustered in Utah and surrounding states. Other less numerous faiths have distinctive distributions within the United States..

Pause & Reflect 6.1.3

Which migration factors help to explain the distribution of branches of Christianity within North America?