Protestant statistics show a worldwide Christian tradition with major population centers in sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, alongside established churches in Europe and growing institutions in other regions. The figures below combine Pew Research Center estimates for 2010 with church membership figures reported in LWF Statistics 2023. These measures describe different things: a global population estimate is not the same as a church membership register.
Contents
- Global Protestant share
- Where Protestants live
- The wider Christian population in 2010
- Reported membership in major churches
- European Lutheran membership
- Smaller European and overseas figures
Global Protestant share
Pew Research Center’s Global Christianity research reports that Protestants accounted for 37% of all Christians worldwide. This is a share of the global Christian population, not a percentage of the entire world population. The source label for this figure is Pew Research Center, Global Christianity.
That distinction matters when reading Protestant statistics. A percentage can describe a relationship between Protestants and all Christians, while a membership count can describe the people reported by one named church. Neither measure alone gives a complete count of every Protestant congregation, denomination, or independent church.
The global share provides a useful starting point because it places Protestant Christianity within the wider Christian family. The regional figures that follow describe the distribution of the global Protestant population, while the country and church figures later in the article use different reporting units.
Where Protestants live
Pew Research Center’s Christian Traditions figures divide the global Protestant population across four broad regions. Sub-Saharan Africa held 37% of the global Protestant population, making it the largest regional share in this dataset. The Americas held 33%, the Asia-Pacific region held 17%, and Europe held 13%.
The regional comparison is compactly summarized here:
| Region | Share of global Protestant population | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 37% | Pew Research Center, Christian Traditions |
| Americas | 33% | Pew Research Center, Christian Traditions |
| Asia-Pacific | 17% | Pew Research Center, Christian Traditions |
| Europe | 13% | Pew Research Center, Christian Traditions |
Together, these four reported shares describe the full regional distribution presented by the source. The two largest shares in the comparison are sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas. Europe represents the smallest of the four listed regional shares, even though the later membership figures include many long-established European Lutheran churches.
Regional percentages should be read as geographic distribution, not as local church attendance rates. They do not state how many people worship regularly, how membership is defined in each country, or how Protestant groups are divided among denominations. They simply identify the reported share of the worldwide Protestant population in each region.
The wider Christian population in 2010
Pew Research Center’s Global Religious Landscape reported 2.2 billion Christians worldwide in 2010. Christians represented 32% of the world’s population in that year. These are historical measurements for 2010, rather than current totals or forecasts.
The country figures supplied by Pew Research Center’s Projected Changes in the Global Christian Population give four large Christian population counts for the same 2010 reference point:
- The United States had 243 million Christians.
- Brazil had 173 million Christians.
- Mexico had 108 million Christians.
- Russia had 105 million Christians.
These country counts are Christian population figures, not Protestant-only counts. They therefore provide context for the scale of Christianity in four countries but should not be substituted for national Protestant membership. The 2010 date is essential: the figures describe the population at that historical measurement point, regardless of how later membership reports are dated.
The difference between the two kinds of evidence is especially important in the United States and Brazil. A national Christian population estimate can include several Christian traditions, while the church figures below identify particular organizations and their reported members. A reader comparing them should keep the population definition, geography, and measurement year visible.
Reported membership in major churches
LWF Statistics 2023 reports membership figures for churches in several regions. The largest figures in the supplied church reports include the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus at 12,000,000 members and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania at 8,500,000. The Protestant Christian Batak Church in Indonesia reported 6,333,000 members, while the Church of Sweden reported 5,484,000.
Other large reported memberships include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark with 4,235,575 members, the Malagasy Lutheran Church with 4,000,000, the Church of Norway with 3,611,670, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland with 3,579,616. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America reported 2,904,686 members.
| Church | Reported members | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus | 12,000,000 | LWF Statistics 2023 |
| Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania | 8,500,000 | LWF Statistics 2023 |
| Protestant Christian Batak Church in Indonesia | 6,333,000 | LWF Statistics 2023 |
| Church of Sweden | 5,484,000 | LWF Statistics 2023 |
| Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark | 4,235,575 | LWF Statistics 2023 |
| Malagasy Lutheran Church | 4,000,000 | LWF Statistics 2023 |
| Church of Norway | 3,611,670 | LWF Statistics 2023 |
| Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland | 3,579,616 | LWF Statistics 2023 |
| Evangelical Lutheran Church in America | 2,904,686 | LWF Statistics 2023 |
The Protestant Church in the Netherlands reported 1,425,000 members. In Germany, the reported figures included 2,302,547 members for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, 2,143,233 for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, 1,821,266 for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg, and 1,772,953 for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.
Several other reported church memberships were close to or above six hundred thousand. The Evangelical Church in Central Germany reported 615,855 members, the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil reported 614,555, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony reported 610,503.
These figures are organization-level reports. They should be described as reported memberships rather than as a single standardized global census, because the names identify separate churches and the dataset does not provide one common definition beyond the LWF Statistics 2023 reporting label.
European Lutheran membership
The LWF Statistics 2023 figures include churches across northern, central, eastern, and western Europe. Alongside the larger Scandinavian and German reports, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Baden reported 2,444 members, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick reported 293,979, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg reported 371,688.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schaumburg-Lippe reported 45,764 members. The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren reported 58,521, while the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Czech Republic reported 13,919.
The Baltic reports included 160,000 members for the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, 250,000 for the Evangelical Church of Latvia, 18,100 for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania, and 4,800 for the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Worldwide. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary reported 176,000 members.
In Poland, the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession reported 60,244 members. The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania reported 10,773, while the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Romania reported 23,700. The Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Russia and Other States reported 20,000, and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia reported 25,000.
Other central and southeastern European reports were 50,000 members for the Slovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Serbia, 193,995 for the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic, and 247,834 for the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria.
Smaller European and overseas figures
LWF Statistics 2023 also lists reported memberships for churches in France, Italy, Canada, and Great Britain. The Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine reported 220,000 members. The United Protestant Church of France reported 25,000, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy reported 6,000.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada reported 40,171 members, while the Lutheran Church in Great Britain reported 1,500. The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania’s 10,773 members and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia’s 25,000 members illustrate how widely reported membership sizes can vary among named organizations.
Taken together, the statistics describe several layers of Protestant life: a 37% share within global Christianity, regional distribution led by sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, historical Christian population estimates for 2010, and church-specific membership reports labeled LWF Statistics 2023. Keeping those categories separate makes the numbers more useful for understanding faith communities without presenting unlike measurements as one total.