CURRENT NEWS SUMMARY
by the Editors at ReligionToday.com

April 26, 1999

More than 2 billion people worldwide will be Christians in 2000.
Researchers David Barrett (see link #1 below) and Todd Johnson
estimate that there are 1.99 billion people who profess
Christianity today, about one-third of the world’s population,
the German Evangelical Alliance said. Roman Catholics constitute
the largest group of Christians with more than 1 billion members,
followed by mainline Protestants with 321 million. The world’s
Orthodox churches have 222 million believers. Anglican groups,
which Barrett classifies separately, report 74.5 million.
Charismatics and Pentecostals, including independents and others
who belong to denominations, number about 449 million, the report
said.

…Islam is the second largest religion with 1.19 billion
adherents, followed by Hindu (774 million), non-religious (768
million), Buddhists (359 million), tribal religions (252
million), atheists (151 million), new religions (101 million),
Sikhs (22.7 million), and Jews (14.2 million), Barrett said.