Updates

The core religious data of the World Christian Database has been updated from mid-2010 to mid-2015.

Estimates for the number of religionists in every country of the world are now reconciled with the United Nations population projections for mid-2015. The update includes statistics on all world Religions as well as the Peoples and Country tables, and preliminary data for Cities and Provinces.

Unless labelled otherwise, all data in WCD now refer to 2015.

Note that Christian denominations and communions remain labelled as AD 2010 and will remain so until the first estimates for 2015 denominations become available. Also, note that religions by province for 2015 is preliminary data and full reconciliation of religions in the Province table with the Country tables should follow next quarter.

New projections of religious adherents for 2020, 2025, 2030 and 2050 are also included in this update.

Revised methodology document
The Methodology of the World Christian Database document has been revised to include material from Todd M. Johnson and Brian J. Grim, The World’s Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography (Oxford: Wiley-­-Blackwell, 2013).

Four important but unrelated changes are included in this quarter’s update:

The former UN region of South-Central Asia is split, allowing estimates for Central Asia to now be shown separately from those of South Asia.

The year 2030 is added as an extra data point, so that the religion over time series now includes the years 1900, 1950, 1970, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025, 2030 and 2050.

The “Independent” Christian major tradition now includes the former “Marginal Christian” category which is being retired. (See the January 2014 edition of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research).

The category “Great Commission Christians” which was also labeled “evangelicals” (with a lower case ‘e’) is also being retired, partly to avoid confusion with the ongoing category ‘Evangelicals’ (with a capital ‘E’). A forthcoming article will explain the rationale and implications.