Editing History of Christianity (section)

===Worldwide===
{{Main|World Christianity}}
[[File:Percent of Christians by Country–Pew Research 2011.svg|thumb|alt=map of worldwide Christianity in 2011|Global distribution of Christians based on 2011 [[Pew Research Center]] data{{sfn|PEW Research Center|2022}}]] 
Before 1945, about a third of the people in the world were Christians, and about 80% of them lived in Europe, Russia, and the Americas.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=1}} In 2025, there are still 31% of adults around the world that declare themselves Christian, but they are no longer concentrated in the West.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} Christianity has been in decline in Europe for decades. Between 2010 and 2015, the number of European Christians who died outnumbered births by nearly 6 million.{{sfn|Pew Center|2017}} From 2019 to 2024, the Christian share of the adult population in the United States stayed between 60% and 64%. Even so, it is estimated that fewer than a quarter of the world's Christians will live in its western locations by 2060.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} 

After WWII, [[decolonization]] strengthened the indigenization efforts of Christian missionaries, leading to explosive growth in the churches of former colonies.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|pp=1, 8}}{{sfn|Fontaine|2016|pp=6–8}}{{sfn|Sanneh|2007|p=285}}{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=231, 233-234}} In 1900, there were just under nine million Christians in Africa; by 1960, this number had increased to 60 million, and by 2005, to 393 million, about half of the continent's population, a proportion which has remained constant as of 2022.{{sfn|Sanneh|2007|p=xx}}{{sfn|PEW Research Center|2022}}{{sfn|Isichei|1995|p=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchristi0000isic/page/n13/mode/2up 1]}} According to [[Pew Research Center|PEW]], religion is very important to people in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Latin America where populations are growing and are likely to continue to grow.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} This is shifting the geographic center of Christianity to sub-Saharan Africa where more than forty percent of the world’s Christians are projected to live by 2060.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} 

Christianity in Southeast and East Asia, especially Korea, grew faster after colonialism.{{sfn|Jenkins|2011|pp=89–90}}{{sfn|Zurlo|2020|pp=3–9}}{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=6}} Rapid expansion began in the 1980s.{{sfn|Singapore Management University|2017}}{{sfn|Anderson|Tang|2005|p=2}} The [[Council on Foreign Relations]] reports that the number of [[Three-Self Patriotic Movement|Chinese Protestants]] has grown by an average of 10% annually since 1979, with growth especially prominent among young people.{{sfn|Yoo|2019|p=27 fn.7}}{{sfn|Albert|2018|loc=Introduction}}{{sfn|America magazine|2018|ps=: "A study of the religious lives of university students in Beijing published in a mainland Chinese academic journal ''Science and Atheism'' in 2013 showed Christianity to be the religion that interested students most and was the most active on campuses."}} With the [[Fall of the Eastern Bloc]], Christianity expanded in some Eastern European countries while declining in others.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|pp=1, 8}}{{sfn|Fontaine|2016|pp=6–8}}{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=231, 233-234}} Catholic countries have displayed secularization, while Orthodox countries have experienced a revival of church participation.{{sfn|Northmore-Ball|Evans|2016|loc=abstract}} Orthodox Christianity made a partial resurgence in the former Soviet Union after 1991 and continues to be an important element of national identity for many citizens there.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} 

In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, Christianity is present in all seven continents and a multitude of different cultures.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|p=XX}}{{sfn|Walker|2013|pp=267-271}} Most Christians live outside North America and Western Europe; white Christians are a global minority, and slightly over half of worldwide Christians are female.{{sfn|Ford|2013|p=429}}{{sfn|PEW global|2020}} In 2017, PEW reported that Christianity is the world's largest religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers, equal to 31.2% of the world's population.{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=1}}{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=8}}{{sfn|Pew Center|2017}}