List of the largest Protestant denominations

This article is inevitably partial, taking into consideration only these Protestant bodies with a membership greater than a number specified by their assigned category. It is an ongoing work-in-progress and needs to be updated as sizes of religious organisations change over time. Reliable and most recent statistics, preferably provided by the organisations themselves, are of interest to this article.

This is a list of the largest Protestant denominations. It aims to include sizable Protestant communions, federations, alliances, councils, fellowships, and other denominational organisations in the world and provides information regarding the membership thereof. The list is inevitably partial and generally based on claims by the denominations themselves. The numbers should therefore be considered approximate. Protestant bodies being considered in this article are divided into:

• transdenominational bodies with more than 50 million members
• international bodies with more than 10 million members
• national bodies with more than 5 million members
• non-national bodies with more than 5 million members

Countries by number of Protestants in 2010

Countries by percentage of Protestants in 2010

In 2010, the most numerous international bodies accounted for more than a half of worldwide Protestant population,^{[note 1]} while the most numerous national bodies accounted for more than 200 of the world's 800 million Protestants.^{[note 2][1]}

Transdenominational organisations are very large and often characterized by overlapping membership as opposed to international and national bodies. Some of the national groupings cannot be considered churches in mainstream Protestant ecclesiology even when they constitute a single denomination. A good example is the Protestant Church in Germany, which differs denominationally and encompasses Lutheran, Reformed and United subchurches.

Lists of the largest Protestant bodies

Transdenominational bodies

Transdenominational bodies include people across all denominations that participate in a movement which goes beyond their Protestant branch, like Evangelicalism, the Charismatic movement, or the Neo-charismatic movement. These are of international scope.

The World Evangelical Alliance is so far the only major transdenominational evangelical Protestant organization that operates internationally. It represents 600 million Christians. The Porvoo Communion brings Lutherans and Anglicans in Europe into a common communion.

Name	Orientation	Foundation	Leadership	Headquarters	Region	Membership	Notes
World Evangelical Alliance	Evangelical	1846 London, England[2]	Secretary-General Thomas Schirrmacher	New York City, United States	Worldwide	600,000,000[3]	Aims to unite Evangelicals worldwide.
Porvoo Communion	Anglican Lutheran	1992 Porvoo Cathedral, Porvoo, Finland	Co-chairmen Bishop Peter Skov-Jakobsen, Archbishop Michael Jackson	None	Europe	50,000,000[4]	Communion of Anglican and Lutheran denominations in Europe.
Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe	Lutheran Reformed Methodist	1973 Hölstein, Switzerland	Secretary-General Mario Fischer	Vienna, Austria	Europe	50,000,000[5]	Communion of Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist and United denominations in Europe.

International bodies

International bodies tend to bring together only one Protestant branch which shares common founders, tenets and history. Among the most sizeable international bodies are the Anglican Communion, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Lutheran World Federation – each with more than 70 million members.

Name	Orientation	Foundation	Leadership	Headquarters	Region	Membership	Notes
Anglican Communion	Anglican	1867 Lambeth Conference, London, England	Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby	London, United Kingdom	Worldwide	85,000,000[6]	Brings together Anglicans from all over the world, and is the largest of such organizations.
World Communion of Reformed Churches	Reformed	2010	General Secretary Chris Ferguson	Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany	Worldwide	80,000,000[7]	Brings together Calvinists from all over the world, and is the largest of such organizations.
World Methodist Council	Methodist	1881	General Secretary Bishop Ivan M. Abrahams	Waynesville, North Carolina, United States	Worldwide	80,000,000[8]	Brings together Methodists from all over the world.
Lutheran World Federation	Lutheran	1947	General Secretary Anne Burghardt	Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland	Worldwide	75,000,000[9]	Brings together Lutherans from all over the world, and is the largest of such organizations.
World Assemblies of God Fellowship	Pentecostal	1988	General Superintendent and Chairman Doug E. Clay	Springfield, Missouri, United States	Worldwide	86,143,293[10]	Brings together a substantial Pentecostal population, although not the majority, as it is scattered in various independent Pentecostal denominations.
Baptist World Alliance	Baptist	1905	General Secretary Elijah M. Brown	Falls Church, Virginia, United States	Worldwide	48,000,000[11]	Brings together a substantial Baptist population, although not the majority, as it is scattered in various independent Baptist denominations.

National bodies

Although there are "mostly national" denominations like the United Methodist Church (mainly concentrated in the United States), or denominations with dispersed membership like the Apostolic Church and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) (both with membership dispersed around the world) that have a far larger membership than required to be on this list, they operate worldwide and cannot be considered alongside other national bodies like, for example, the Church of Christ in Congo, which operates solely in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is not active beyond that country's borders.

The Church of England, the Church of Christ in Congo, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the Assembleias de Deus and the Protestant Church in Germany constitute the most numerous national bodies with more than 20 million members each.

Name	Orientation	Foundation	Leadership	Headquarters	Region	Membership	Notes
Church of England	Anglican	1534[note 3]	Supreme Governor King Charles III; Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby	London, United Kingdom	England	26,000,000[12]	The country's established church.
Church of Christ in Congo	Methodists, Pentecostals, Baptists, Mennonites, Reformed, Evangelicals, United Protestants[13]	1970	Bishop Pierre Marini Bodho	Kinshasa, Kinshasa Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo	Democratic Republic of the Congo	25,500,000[14]	Federation of most Congolese Protestants. Largest United Protestant denomination worldwide.
Three-Self Patriotic Movement	State-regulated theology various Protestants	1951	Chairperson Fu Xianwei Secretary General Xu Xiaohong	Shanghai, China	China	23,000,000[15]	It is the only Protestant denomination approved by the Chinese government. Its theology is regulated and controlled by the state.
Assembléias de Deus	Pentecostal	1911	General Superintendent José Wellington Bezerra da Costa	São Paulo, State of São Paulo, Brazil	Brazil	22,500,000[16]	Fragmented into smaller units which together gather the vast majority of Brazilian Pentecostals. The largest Pentecostal denomination in the world.
Protestant Church in Germany	Prussian, United, Lutheran, Reformed	1948	Praeses of the Synod Irmgard Schwaetzer Chairman of the Council of the EKD Heinrich Bedford-Strohm	Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany	Germany	20,200,000[17]	Federation of most German protestants.
Born Again Movement	Evangelicals, Charismatics, Chinese house church	1968		Henan, China	China	20,000,000[18]	House church, not recognized by the Chinese government.
Church of Nigeria	Anglican	1979	Primate of all Nigeria, Archbishop of Abuja Province Nicholas Okoh	Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria	Nigeria	18,000,000[19]	Local province of the Anglican Communion.
Southern Baptist Convention	Baptist	1845	President Ed Litton	Nashville, Tennessee, United States	United States	13,200,000[20]	The world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
Church of Uganda	Anglican	1897	Archbishop of Uganda and Bishop of Kampala Stanley Ntagali	Namirembe Hill, Kampala District, Uganda	Uganda	11,000,000[21]	Local province of the Anglican Communion.
Fangcheng Fellowship	Evangelicals, Charismatics, Chinese house church	1971			China	10,000,000[22]	House church, not recognised by the Chinese government.
Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus	Lutheran	1959	Bishop Dr. Wakseyoum Idossa	Addis Ababa, Chartered city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Ethiopia	8,310,129[23]	The world's largest Lutheran denomination.
China Gospel Fellowship	Evangelicals, Charismatics, Chinese house church	1980s			China	8,000,000[24]	House church, not recognized by the Chinese government.
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.	Baptist	1880	President Dr. Jerry Young	Montgomery, Alabama, United States	United States	7,500,000[25]	The second largest Baptist denomination in the world. It is considered a black church with its membership being largely African American.
Nigerian Baptist Convention	Baptist	1915	Rev. Dr. Samson Olasupo Adeniyi Ayokunle, President (and chief executive officer)	Ibadan	Nigeria	6,500,000[26]	The world's third largest Baptist denomination.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania	Lutheran	1963	Bishop Dr. Fredrick Onael Shoo	Arusha, Arusha Region, Tanzania	Tanzania	6,500,000[27]	The world's second largest Lutheran denomination.
Church of Sweden	Lutheran	1593	Archbishop of Uppsala Antje Jackelén	Uppsala, Uppsala County, Sweden	Sweden	5,600,000[28]	The world's third largest Lutheran denomination, and the third largest Protestant one in Europe.
Anglican Church of Kenya	Anglican	1970	Jackson Ole Sapit	Nairobi, Nairobi County, Kenya	Kenya	5,000,000[28]	Local province of the Anglican Communion.

Non-national bodies

These denominations operate worldwide and cannot be considered alongside other national bodies.

Many sizeable non-national bodies happen to be Pentecostal. The list also includes the largest Adventist church (the Seventh-day Adventist Church), the largest Methodist church (the United Methodist Church) and the largest African initiated church (the Zion Christian Church) and the second largest Pentecostal denomination in the world, The Pentecostal Mission (TPM) or (New Testament Church/Universal Pentecostal Church/Ceylon Pentecostal Mission).

Name	Orientation	Foundation	Leadership	Headquarters	Region	Membership	Notes
Assemblies of God	Pentecostal	1914/1988	George O. Wood	None	Worldwide	69,189,381[29]	The world's largest Pentecostal denomination.
Seventh-day Adventist Church	Adventist	1863	Ted N.C. Wilson[30]	Silver Spring, Maryland, United States	Worldwide	21,912,161[31]	The world's largest Adventist denomination. Brings together the vast majority of the world's Adventists.
The Apostolic Church	Pentecostal	1911/1916			Worldwide	15,000,000	Trinitarian Pentecostal denomination which emerged from the 1904-1905 Welsh Revival.
Zion Christian Church	African initiated			Zion City Moria, Limpopo, South Africa	Southern Africa	15,000,000	The world's largest African initiated church with Anglican, Pentecostal and evangelical influences.
United Methodist Church	Methodist	1968		None	Worldwide	12,000,000	The world's largest Methodist denomination.
New Apostolic Church International	Irvingian	1863	Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider	Zürich, Switzerland	Worldwide	9,240,000[32]
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel	Pentecostal			Los Angeles, California, U.S.	Worldwide	9,000,000
Church of God in Christ	Pentecostal			Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.	Worldwide	6,500,000
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)	Pentecostal	1886	Dr. Tim Hill	Cleveland, Tennessee, U.S.	Worldwide	7,000,000[33]
United Pentecostal Church International	Oneness Pentecostal	1945	David K. Bernard	Weldon Spring, Missouri, U.S.	Worldwide	5,750,000	The world's largest denomination in Oneness Pentecostalism.
Jesus Is Lord Church Worldwide	Full Gospel	1978	Bro. Eddie Villanueva	Manila, Philippines	Worldwide	1,000,000[34]

See also

• Religion portal
• Christianity portal
• Reformed Christianity portal
• Evangelical Christianity portal

• Protestantism by country
• List of Christian denominations by number of members
• List of Christian denominations
• List of the largest Protestant churches in the USA
• List of religious organizations

Notes

1. In this comparison, the Pew Forum's figure of 800 million Protestants is used. Mentioned international bodies together accounted for some 420 million people in 2010.
2. In this comparison, the Pew Forum's figure of 800 million Protestants is used. Mentioned national bodies accounted for a little more than 200 million people in 2010.
3. The English church can be traced back to 597. It separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.

References

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3. "WEA – World Evangelical Alliance Est. 1846 – Page Whoweare". Archived from the original on 2015-03-15. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
4. "Common Statement" (PDF). Anglican Communion. February 1993.
5. "Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe CPCE | Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Europa GEKE – Communion d'Églises Protestantes en Europe CEPE". Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe CPCE.
6. "Anglican Communion". Anhglicancommunion.org. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
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10. https://ag.org/about/statistics
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12. "Church of England statistics 2011" (PDF). Churchofengland.org. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
13. "Église du Christ au Congo". ecc.faithweb.com.
14. "Eglise du Christ au Congo". Ecc.faithweb.com. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
15. "Regional Distribution of Christians". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 19 December 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
16. "Assembleia de Deus no Brasil é a maior do mundo". Fronteira Final. 2 July 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
17. "Zahlen und Fakten zum kirchlichen Leben 2021" (PDF). EKD (in German). Retrieved 3 January 2022.
18. "China's Dynamic Church". Christianity Today. Archived from the original on 2011-08-14. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
19. "Nigerian Anglicans May Control the Future of the Church". Thinkafricapress.com. 14 April 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
20. Aaron Earls, Southern Baptists grow in attendance and baptisms, decline in membership, baptistpress.com, USA, May 9, 2023
21. "2002 Uganda Population and Housing Census: Main Report" (PDF). Uganda Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 24, 2007.
22. Micklethwait, John; Wooldridge, Adrian (2009-04-02). God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World. Penguin. ISBN 9781101032411. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
23. "New and Events". EEcmy.org. Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
24. "Authority of Scripture in China's Underground House Church". Biblereadingproject.com. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
25. "About Us – The National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc". Nationalbaptist.com. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
26. "Home". nigerianbaptist.org.
27. "ELCT Press Release". Elct.org. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
28. Svenska kyrkan i siffror Svenska kyrkan
29. 2017 Summary Statistical Reportag.org Archived 2023-04-05 at the Wayback Machine
30. "Leadership". General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
31. "Seventh-day Adventist World Church Statistics 2021". 17 February 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
32. "NAC worldwide: the key figures". 2 June 2023.
33. "A Brief History of the Church of God".
34. "About Bro Eddie and JIL". Retrieved 20 April 2023.