Christianity Splinters Into Tens of Thousands of Denominations
One church became three broad families, and those three families became too many groups to count precisely
Quick facts
- Major Protestant traditions
- Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal
- Share Catholic (2010 data)
- 50%
- Share Protestant
- 37%
- Share Orthodox
- 12%
What happened
In the centuries after the Reformation, Protestant Christianity in particular continued to divide and re-divide, producing new denominations through further theological disagreement, revival movements, missionary expansion, and migration into new regions where local leaders founded independent churches. By the early 21st century, researchers tracking global Christian affiliation counted tens of thousands of distinct Christian denominations and rites worldwide, though roughly half of the world's Protestants still belonged to one of six major historic traditions: Lutheran, Calvinist/Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal. Pew Research Center's global count found that, of all the world's Christians, about half are Catholic, more than a third Protestant, and roughly one in eight Orthodox, with the remaining fraction split among smaller groups.
Why it matters
This continual splintering shows that the Reformation did not produce one alternative to Catholicism but opened an ongoing process of division that has never really stopped, driven as much by missionary expansion into new cultures and revival movements as by the original 16th-century disputes over doctrine.
How we know
Global denominational counts come from specialized religious demography research, including the Center for the Study of Global Christianity and Pew Research Center's Global Christianity survey, both of which track church membership and affiliation data reported by denominations themselves.
Sources
- Pew Research Center. The Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population · General sourcepewresearch.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Pew Research Center. Christianity Poised to Continue Its Southward March · General sourcepewresearch.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match).
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Part of a timelineHistory of Christianity28 events · A crucified Jewish teacher, a persecuted sect that became an empire's official religion, and two thousand years of councils, schisms, and missions that carried it to every continentView all →