[OBAFGKM]

"Well, first of all, I am an actuary - so, yeah, I guess you could say I was 'sufficiently educated in the discipline.'"

Sorry, Pete. AB's got a point. If the statistics comparing "most important religious groups" are correct, then there must be at least 4.7 times as many Catholics in the world as there are Protestants. But it's impossible to make that consistent with the claimed Christian growth rate since 1970. You're the actuary -- work it out for yourself.

Frankly, the statistics are likely constructed of whole cloth.

[Pete]

Sorry, Pete. AB's got a point. If the statistics comparing "most important religious groups" are correct, then there must be at least 4.7 times as many Catholics in the world as there are Protestants.

Maybe I am a little thick today, but I don't see where you get your 4.7 number from the growth rates.

But it's impossible to make that consistent with the claimed Christian growth rate since 1970. You're the actuary -- work it out for yourself.

The Christian growth rate data is for Evangelicals only (I mentioned the unfortunate title choice in a prior post). Note the 7.5% figure for 2001, which lines up with the numbers shown in the "Important Religious Groups" chart.

Frankly, the statistics are likely constructed of whole cloth.

There is always that chance so a second source would come in handy. I was able to find a second source at http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm. I think you would agree that these folks have a slightly different agenda than the original source I posted above. Here is what they have to say:

Within Christianity, not all denominations have the same growth rate. Some annual growth rates are:

Pentecostals: 8.1%
Evangelicals: 5.4%;
All Protestants: 3.3%
Roman Catholics and Others: 1.3%

Note that the original source combined Pentecostals and Evangelicals and here there are shown separately. While I don't have the counts to use as weights, the 7.5% shown in the original source is reasonably consistent with some blend of 5.4% and 8.1% shown above. While the other categories don't match exactly, they are reasonably consistent.

Having said all that, my intention in posting the data in the first place was to illustrate that the evangelical population is NOT decreasing. The data I have referenced supports that. If anyone can find data showing a decrease in the evangelical population, I would be happy to review it.