Updates

Roman Catholicism is one of the four major traditions of Christianity (together with the Orthodox, Protestant, and Independent traditions). The number of people affiliated with the Roman Catholic church in 2015 has been updated in each country to align with the 2016 edition of the Vatican’s Catholic Church Directory (Annuario Pontificio). The 2015 data for each major tradition will progressively change from projections to hard data as reports, year books and censuses covering 2015 become available.

The social and health context of peoples lives in each country are given by a range of country indicators updated this quarter covering: Religious Liberty, Human Development, Literacy, Corruption, Water Access, Physicians, HIV Adults, Malaria, GDP, GNI, Internet users, and Education. Data describing the State Religion of each country has also been thoroughly revised, and a section on ethno-linguistic people groups has been added to the methodology document.