Countries With the Most Christians 2020

What this chart shows. The 25 countries with the most Christians in 2020, in millions of people. The United States led with 217.3 million, followed by Brazil with 168.3 million and Mexico with 113.1 million. 8 of the 25 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, led by Nigeria with 92.8 million.

How the data is collected. Pew's dataset covers 201 countries and territories that had at least 100,000 inhabitants in 2010 or 2020, together home to 99.98% of the world's population. Christians of all denominations form a single category, and Pew asks that its rounded counts be used for reporting, as they are here.

Background. The number of Christians in the United States fell 10.8% between 2010 and 2020, from 243.5 million, and their share of the population dropped from 78.3% to 64.0%. 10 of the 25 countries had fewer Christians than in 2010, all of them in Europe or the Americas. Russia slipped from third to fifth, and Mexico rose from fourth to third. Worldwide the number of Christians grew 5.7%, but their share of the world's population fell from 30.6% to 28.8%.

Limits. The chart does not separate Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and other Christians, because the dataset does not. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10,000 and describe 2020, the most recent year in the study. Angola had the fastest growth among the 25, 45.9%, partly because its whole population grew quickly over the decade.