About The World Christian Database

The World Christian Database provides comprehensive statistical information on global Christianity, other world religions, and Christian activities in all 237 countries. Extensive data are available on thousands of Christian denominations, ethnolinguistic people groups, cities, and provinces.

The World Christian Database transforms statistics on religion into a real-time analysis tool that takes just minutes to perform even detailed research. This comprehensive database brings together a fully updated and cohesive dataset on religion and non-religion with a world-class architecture. The result is a simple, yet powerful tool that enables users to customize reports, download datasets, and create unique maps, charts, and graphs.

Clear, Comprehensive, Customizable

The World Christian Database is based on the most extensive survey of Christianity and world religions ever attempted, published in three editions of the World Christian Encyclopedia (1982, 2001, 2019). This extensive work is now completely digitized, updated, and integrated into the WCD online database. Designed for both the casual user and research scholar, information is readily available on religious and non-religious populations, Christian denominations, rates of change, and Christian activities. Further contextual information is available, by country, on socio-economic, health, environmental, and gender indicators.

Supported by Top Scholars

A full-time staff at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity is dedicated to updating and maintaining the World Christian Database. New information from thousands of sources is reviewed periodically to continually refine and improve the WCD. Most importantly, researchers triangulate multiple sources of information to arrive at the best estimates for every religion in every country, such as information from government censuses, social scientific surveys, and data from religious communities themselves. This cohesive database enables users to quickly compare variables or entity groups across multiple fields without spending hours to confirm consistency of measurement across data sources.

Religions

Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.

Countries and regions

Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.

Denominations

Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.

Cities & provinces

Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.

Peoples & languages

Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.

Archive

A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.