How many Christians in China?

For some three decades OMF International has been researching the numbers of believers in China. We have resisted the urge to publicize large figures which have no documented basis. For some years, in publications such as Pray for China and China’s Christian Millions we have given the tentative and incomplete evidence pointing to more than 50 million Protestant believers in China, but we have not accepted the much higher figures sometimes of over 100 million, which other overseas groups or individuals have publicized—usually on hearsay or without any real supporting evidence.

It is therefore highly significant that China Daily should publish an open article giving a figure by an eminent Mainland researcher of “more than 50 million” house-church believers. The official figure of 20-21 million believers in TSPM churches does not normally include children under 18 years old, nor the many enquirers who have not yet been baptized, so is a conservative figure. The total figure of 70 million Protestants is, therefore, also a conservative figure. Roman Catholic sources generally state there are some 10-15 million Catholics (both “patriotic” and “underground”) in China. The overall Christian community in China is therefore conservatively at least 80 million. This is an astonishing growth from 4 million in 1949 (3 million Catholic and 1 million Protestant).