Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| Universal Commission | The Great Commission (qv). |
| universal georeligion | A large non-local religion making membership open to all of any race, language, or background. |
| universal religion | Any religion which admits persons of any race or people; a world religion, usually missionary in emphasis. |
| universal religionists | Followers of universal religions as contrasted with primal religionists (qv). |
| universalism | The theological doctrine that all men will eventually be saved or restored to holiness and happiness. |
| Universalists | Unitarians (qv). |
| universe | In sampling and polls, the total population to which a sample survey refers. |
| universities, Christian | Degree-granting universities and colleges teaching secular subjects, operated by churches or under Christian auspices. |
| university departments of religion | Departments significant for the study of Christianity number over 1,500 in as many universities across to world. |
| unreached | The state of not having had the gospel brought. |
| unreached | Never having heard the gospel nor having had the opportunity to contact an indigenous church or fellowship of one’s own culture. |
| unreached minipeople | A minipeople with no viable indigenous church. |
| unreached people | An ethnolinguistic people which does not have its own viable indigenous church. |
| unreached peoples | Ethnic, linguistic and other groups without previous contact with Christianity, who have not or not yet had the gospel brought to them. |
| unreached person | Individuals who have, or have had, no adequate opportunity to hear the gospel, or to respond to it, or to meet and have fellowship with other believers. |
| unrecognized churches | Churches or denominations whom the state refuses to legalize. |
| Untouchables | A large hereditary group in India having, in traditional Hindu belief and practice, the quality of defiling by contact the person, food, or drink of members of higher castes, and formerly being strictly segregated and restricted to menial work; the term has been illegal in India since 1949 and in Pakistan since 1953, and is now replaced by Harijans (Children of God) or Scheduled Castes. |
| untouched | In evangelization, a population group that is not yet explored or traveled to or influenced or disturbed or reached by Christians, nor written about, but is still in its original (often primitive or aboriginal) intact state; non-evangelized |
| Uralian | An Asian ethnolinguistic family (Whites). |
| urban area | Defined in many countries as an administrative district with a population over 2,000. |
| urban dweller | urbanites (qv). |
| urban dwellers | The population living in urban areas usually including cities and towns with over 5,000 inhabitants. |
| urban mission | In the field of urban industrial mission, Christian organizations significant at the national or wider levels number over 400. |
| urbanites | Urban dwellers, persons residing in a city, town, or recognized urban area. |
| urbanization | The state or extent of urban areas or the process of becoming urbanized, in a particular country. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.