What Countries are Protestant?
According to a 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly 31.2% of the world’s population follows Christianity. This means about 2.27 billion people in the world are Christians. Of these, between 800 and 900 million are Protestants. Though we lack accurate data about the number of Protestants in the world, various estimates suggest that between 11.6% and 13% of the world’s population follows Protestantism.
Going by percentage of the total population, the following countries have the highest number of Protestantism followers (as of 2014) –
| Rank | Country | Percentage of Population |
| 1 | Tuvalu | 98.4 |
| 2 | Denmark | 91 |
| 2 | Iceland | 91 |
| 4 | Norway | 90 |
| 5 | Sweden | 86 |
| 5 | Antigua and Barbuda | 86 |
| 7 | Finland | 85.10 |
| 8 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 83 |
| 9 | The Bahamas | 76 |
| 10 | Tonga | 73 |
This ranking may not, however, give us a true picture of the countries with highest Protestant population. This is because, despite having a high percentage of Protestants, the total population of these countries is low. Tuvalu, for example, has the highest percentage of Protestant population, but the total population of this South Pacific island nation is estimated to be only about 10,869.
The following are the countries with the highest Protestant population in the world –
| Rank | Country | Protestant Population |
| 1 | United States of America | 160 million |
| 2 | Nigeria | 60 million |
| 3 | China | 58 million |
| 4 | Brazil | 41 million |
| 5 | South Africa | 37 million |
| 6 | United Kingdom | 34 million |
| 7 | DR Congo | 32 million |
| 8 | Germany | 29 million |
| 9 | Kenya | 24 million |
| 10 | India | 19 million |
Over the years, there have been ongoing debates about the comparison between Catholic and Protestant countries, and the relative affluence of Protestant countries. Max Weber, the German sociologist, claimed that Protestant counties were more prosperous because the religion greatly endorsed capitalism. In 2009, researchers Becker and Woessmann claimed that Protestant countries were more prosperous due to their support of education and women’s participation in the workforce.
The decline of the number of Christians in the world also translates in a decline in the number of Protestants the world over. England, Tuvalu, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden are among the nations which decree Protestantism to be their state religion.
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