Updates

New fields in the religion tables report the 24-hour population change by religion in each country and region and globally.

For example, every day on average over the last 10 years the global Christian population increased by 76,000 people and the Muslim population increased by 72,000 people. The 24-hour change at the end of the period, in 2010, is even higher: 86,000 Christians and 81,000 Muslims.

Global results are shown in the Global 24-hour change query, which is found on the "Religious change over time" home page along with more sample queries.

The two fields are called "Daily change 2000-2010" and "Daily change in 2010" can also be added by users to any queries that show religion-over-time. The average figure is better for looking back at the 2000-2010 period, while the 2010 figure is more useful for discussions in the present.

(For simplicity, only the average daily change is included in the sample queries. The "Daily change 2000-2010" can be thought of as the average change over the full 10 years, and is simply the total increase per year divided by 365.25. "Daily change in 2010" can be thought of as a more "Current" daily change, and is calculated by applying the rate of increase in the 2000-2010 period to the population in 2010.)

Evangelicals are defined in the World Christian Database as "a subdivision mainly of Protestants consisting of all affiliated church members calling themselves Evangelicals, or all persons belonging to Evangelical congregations, churches or denominations; characterized by commitment to personal religion."

Some denominations are thus 100% Evangelical through their membership of bodies like the World Evangelical Alliance. Other denominations have smaller evangelical movements within them: individuals who identify as an Evangelical or who also attend an evangelical denomination.

Two new fields show the percentage and total number of affiliated Christians in 2010 who are Evangelical, for each denomination.

The fields are available for adding to any query that includes denominations. See for example the query "Evangelicals by Denomination" on the Denominations home page.