Mark Elliott
The second edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), edited by David Barrett, George Kurian, and Todd Johnson, greatly expands and updates the calculations of the pathbreaking 1982 edition of the same work. The editors are to be commended for their massive investment of time and labor in the extremely difficult task of measuring the size of Christendom, and indeed, other world religions as well.
The accompanying table from the World Christian Encyclopedia provides estimates for the number of Christians in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe. While helpful especially for comparative purposes, individual totals for various confessions in various countries deserve, in some cases, close scrutiny and qualification. The comments below illustrate why some calculations could be misleading.
- The World Christian Encyclopedia would appear to be too generous in its estimates of Orthodox communities, even with the understanding that nominal believers are included. Figures for Orthodox in Russia (75,950,000), Ukraine (27,400,000), Georgia (2,886,814), and Romania (19,000,000) are so expansive that they would appear to reduce the definition of Orthodox to descendents of populations historically associated with the Orthodox church. For purposes of comparison, in the 1990s British researcher Patrick Johnstone scaled back his figures for Russian Orthodox from 72 million affiliates in Operation World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993, p. 467), to a more conservative 24 million in Patrick Johnstone and Peter Brierley, World Churches Handbook (London: Christian Research, 1997, p. 711).
- The high degree of secularization in most post-Soviet states should raise questions, not only about Orthodox estimates, but about what appear to be overly generous figures for Catholics in such countries as the Czech Republic (4,135,936) and Slovenia (1,659,006).
- The vast majority of Catholics in Ukraine are Eastern Rite, not Roman, so the figure of 5,578,901 must include Catholics of both rites, despite the fact that the heading is Roman Catholic.
- The concept of "Independents," Christians "separated from, uninterested in, and independent of historic denominationalist Christianity," is meaningful and a very significant phenomenon, particularly in Africa and Asia. But one would be prudent to seriously question such startling figures for Independents as 7,800,000 in Russia and 8,500,000 in Ukraine without careful evaluation of specific relevant sources, which the World Christian Encyclopedia does not provide.
- Christians with some connection to Protestant Reformation teachings and beliefs are enumerated under four headings: "Protestants," "Anglicans," "Evangelicals," and "Pentecostals/Charismatics." These four categories total 8,668,300 for Russia, a figure which is so far beyond any estimate for Russian believers with Reformation distinctives ever published that one is inclined to give it little credence. I published an estimate of 2,960,000 Protestants in the former Soviet Union in 1991 for all Reformation-related churches, with the Russian Republic at that point accounting for only 33 percent of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and only three percent of Pentecostals. See Mark Elliott and Robert Richardson, "Growing Protestant Diversity in the Former Soviet Union" in Russian Pluralism--Now Irreversible? ed. by Uri Ra'anan et al. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), 200-01, 205. No published sources or other communications I have received would suggest that church growth in the 1990s would justify a current figure of 8.6 million Russians affiliated with Reformation-related churches. Overlap among the four Protestant Reformation categories might partly explain what appears to be an extraordinarily high estimate. But explanatory material provided for World Christian Encyclopedia statistical tables indicates that categories are "mainly mutually exclusive" (Vol. 1, p. 32). Perhaps some of the "Protestant" figure for Russia (1,630,000) includes non-Trinitarian Jehovah's Witnesses whom Barrett, Kurian, and Johnson define as "marginal Protestant" (Vol. 2, p. 664). Neither Western evangelical missions nor indigenous Russian Protestants would abide such an inclusion. But even adding Jehovah's Witnesses still would not justify the figure given for Russian Protestants in this writer's opinion, especially if "Protestants" and "Pentecostals/Charismatics" are "mainly mutually exclusive."
- The estimates for Pentecostals/Charismatics in Russia and Ukraine (10,510,000) bear no resemblance to figures this editor has ever read or heard. I do believe that Pentecostals/Charismatics in the former Soviet Union now outnumber other Evangelicals, conceivably as much as two to one, and the World Christian Encyclopedia performs a service by noting growing Pentecostal/Charismatic strength. But the figures, at least for Russia and Ukraine, are so high that skepticism about them may cause some to question what I believe should be undeniable, that in the former Soviet Union Pentecostal/Charismatic churches are growing much more rapidly than are other Evangelical churches.
In summary, the 2001 edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia is useful for comparative purposes, but individual figures for individual confessions, at least for post-Soviet states, require cautious use.
Mark Elliott is editor of the East-West Church & Ministry Report.
THE CHRISTIAN POPULATION OF POST-SOVIET STATES
FORMER SOVIET UNION
Christians(1) |
Catholic |
Christians(2) |
Affiliated(4) |
||||||
| Armenia |
2,752,493
|
180,000
|
28,000
|
12,000
|
1,900
|
76,900
|
|||
| Azerbaijan |
345,302
|
12,000
|
7,500
|
3,600
|
1,400
|
450
|
10,000
|
||
| Belorussia |
4,986,077
|
1,350,000
|
606,991
|
110,000
|
130,000
|
30,800
|
95,000
|
||
| Estonia |
230,000
|
5,875
|
356,678
|
46,000
|
240,000
|
72,000
|
60,000
|
||
| Georgia |
2,886,814
|
55,000
|
81,666
|
42,000
|
24,000
|
9,200
|
30,000
|
||
| Kazakhstan |
1,401,803
|
140,000
|
510,000
|
118,177
|
650,000
|
25,000
|
10,000
|
82,000
|
|
| Kirghizia |
363,065
|
40,000
|
1,600
|
22,580
|
70,500
|
30,000
|
3,000
|
17,800
|
|
| Latvia |
555,000
|
490,000
|
1,445
|
115,000
|
-146,075
|
560,000
|
168,000
|
90,000
|
|
| Lithuania |
114,000
|
3,105,000
|
32,000
|
-85,903
|
44,000
|
8,900
|
51,300
|
||
| Moldova |
1,950,558
|
73,000
|
670,000
|
78,000
|
20,000
|
49,000
|
|||
| Russia |
75,950,000
|
1,500,000
|
689,841
|
7,800,000
|
-3,464,943
|
1,633,300
|
560,000
|
6,475,000
|
|
| Tajikistan |
93,000
|
110,000
|
4,412
|
15,000
|
17,000
|
1,900
|
3,200
|
||
| Ukraine |
27,400,000
|
5,578,901
|
199,349
|
8,500,000
|
-1,284,804
|
1,340,000
|
1,016,000
|
4,035,000
|
|
| Uzbekistan |
188,934
|
210,000
|
40,000
|
120,000
|
44,000
|
12,500
|
150,000
|
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
Christians(1) |
Catholic |
Christians(2) |
Affiliated(4) |
||||||
| Albania |
1,101,230
|
521,390
|
27,519
|
17,000
|
20,000
|
6,000
|
100,000
|
||
| Bosnia |
700,000
|
230,000
|
681,135
|
4,917
|
750
|
2 ,700
|
400
|
32,400
|
|
| Bulgaria |
5,886,450
|
90,000
|
6,053
|
580,000
|
95,000
|
120,000
|
140,000
|
||
| Croatia |
250,000
|
3,960,000
|
2,417
|
11,386
|
26,000
|
6,700
|
127,820
|
||
| Czech Rep. |
60,000
|
4,135,936
|
1,636,174
|
270,000
|
320,000
|
127,000
|
256,000
|
||
| Hungary |
90,000
|
6,330,000
|
13,940
|
165,000
|
2,560,000
|
455,000
|
690,000
|
||
| Macedonia |
1,200,000
|
70,600
|
1,127
|
8,192
|
7,000
|
3,120
|
7,700
|
||
| Poland |
1,030,000
|
35,743,059
|
260,097
|
330,000
|
195,000
|
140,000
|
2,015,000
|
||
| Romania |
19,000,000
|
3,237,000
|
11,990
|
290,000
|
-5,430,087
|
2,380,450
|
1,395,302
|
1,350,000
|
|
| Slovakia |
21,000
|
3,660,186
|
286,266
|
23,000
|
600,000
|
115,000
|
246,000
|
||
| Slovenia |
12,000
|
1,659,006
|
92,675
|
31,000
|
32,000
|
13,800
|
69,500
|
||
| Yugoslavia |
6,046,000
|
546,557
|
339,179
|
185,000
|
99,000
|
42,400
|
250,000
|
*Includes Anglicans
(1) Crypto-Christians - Secret believers, hidden Christians, usually known to churches but not to state, secular, or non-Christian religious society
(2) Unaffiliated Christians - Persons professing allegiance and commitment to Christ but who have no church affiliation
(3) Independents - One of Christianity's six ecclesiastico-cultural megablocs, separated from, uninterested in, and independent of historic denominationalist Christianity (the other five megablocs)
(4) Doubly Affiliated Christians - Persons who are baptized members of two or more denominations at the same time
Source: David Barrett, George Kurian, and Todd Johnson, eds., World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Mark Elliott, "Analysis of World Christian Encyclopedia Figures for Post-Soviet Christians," East-West Church & Ministry Report 9 (Summer 2001), 4-5.
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© 2001 East-West Church and Ministry Report
ISSN 1069-5664
