Christianity is a religion based on the teachings and life of Jesus of Nazareth. In Christianity, Jesus is known by many names, such as Christ and the Messiah. Jesus, the Son of God, is believed to be the deliverer of mankind in the most popular religion in the world.
A Christian denomination is a religious group within the broader Christian umbrella. A denomination is identified by such things as leadership, name, doctrine, and other things. There are several factors that are used to distinguish denominations. These factors include such things as the nature of Jesus, eschatology, and others.
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church considers itself a pre-denominational church. That is, it considers itself non-dominant because it precedes all other denominations. It has 24 autonomous Latin churches and another 23 Eastern Catholic churches. Catholics make up the largest percentage of Christians. About 1,285,000,000 people live in this denomination.
Protestantism
Protestants are Christians who broke away from the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation. The branches also began to divide into other branches, although, strictly speaking, some branches cannot be considered Protestants.
Other Affiliates
There are other denominations among Christians that also have substantial followings in the world. Some of these include Anglicanism (85,000,000), the Eastern Orthodox Church (270,000,000), and Eastern Orthodoxy (86,000,000).
The Eastern Orthodox Church has the second largest number of followers in the world. This denomination follows Orthodox jurisdiction, and like Catholicism, the church can trace its origins to the time of the apostles. Nevertheless, for this denomination, most of its churches are national churches that emphasize the independence of their building blocks.
Another particularly interesting denomination in this category is Independent Catholicism, whose membership numbers some 18,000,000 worldwide. This particular denomination identifies itself as Catholic, but it is in no way affiliated with or recognized by the Catholic Church.
Summary
With over 1 billion people identifying with the beliefs of the Catholic Church, this denomination is the only one with followers over the 1 billion mark. In second position, Protestantism is close to 920,000,000 people, but still short of one billion. However, an interesting argument arises. When it comes to the distinction between Protestants and non-Protestants, the distinction is a bit blurred. For example, some religious scholars argue that Anglicans are part of Protestantism. If we follow this logic, there are about 1.5 billion people in the world who practice Protestantism. This figure would make Protestantism the most popular denomination, followed by Catholics with about 1, 3 billion.