Protestantism in Brazil
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On March 10, 1557, the first Protestant worship service was held in Brazil. Followers of Protestantism are rising in number and if the evangelical Christian movement continues to spread at the pace it has in recent years, statistics suggest that by 2022 Catholics will be a minority in a country that was about 90 percent Catholic in 1980 [1]. It is Until 1970, the majority of Brazilian Protestants were the ones of Traditional Churches - Lutherans, Presbyterians and Baptists mainly - but the Pentecostals have increased largely in numbers since then. According to a [Roman] Catholic Church study, 600,000 of their faithful convert annually to a Protestant denomination.
According to IBGE 2000 Census, these are the biggest protestant denominations in Brazil (only listed those with more than a half million members):
- Assemblies of God (Assembléias de Deus): 8,418,140 (5.0%)
- General Convention of the Assemblies of God (Affiliated with the US Assemblies of God, Springfield, MO): 3.6 Million.
- National Convention of the Assemblies of God (A.k.a. Madureira Ministry of the Assemblies of God): 2.5 Million.
- Other independent Assemblies of God, such as Bethesda Assemblies of God: 1,9 Million
- Baptists: 3,162,691 (1.9%)
- Brazilian Baptist Convention (Affiliated to US Southern Baptists): 1,2 Million adherents
- National Baptist Convention (Charismatics Baptists): 1 Million.
- Independent Baptist Convention (Scandinavian Baptists): 400,000.
- Other Baptists: 400,000
- Christian Congregation of Brazil (Italian-Brazilian Pentecostals): 2,6 Million (1.5%)
- Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus): 2 Million Neo-Pentecostal Movement (1.2%)
- Adventists: 1,7 Million (1.0%)
- Seventh-day Adventist Church: 1,6 Milion [2]
- Promise Adventist Church (Brazilian Pentecostal Adventists): 150,000
- Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement: 50,000
- Other Adventists: 100,000
- Foursquare Gospel Church (Classic Pentocostals in US, but second-wave pentecostals in Brazil): 1,318,805 (0.8%)
- Lutherans: 1 Million (0.6%)
- Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confission
- Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil
- Other Lutherans
- Reformed churches: 1 Million (0.6%)
- Presbyterian Church of Brazil: 450,000
- Independent Presbyterian Church: 300,000
- Congregationalists: 100,000
- Other Calvinists:150,000
- Methodists: 340.963 (0,201%)
- Methodist Church of Brazil (Affiliated to US United Methodist Church): 200,000
- Wesleyan Methodist Church (Brazilian Pentecostal Methodists): 100,000
- Other Methodists: 40.000
