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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

In 2010, the most numerous international bodies accounted for more than a half of worldwide Protestant population, while the most numerous national bodies accounted for more than 200 of the world's 800 million Protestants.

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.

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.

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.

Non-national bodies

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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).

See also

• 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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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.
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13. "Église du Christ au Congo". ecc.faithweb.com.
14. "Eglise du Christ au Congo". Ecc.faithweb.com. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
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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.

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