Data source: Gina A. Zurlo, ed., World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| Catholics | All Christians in communion with the Church of Rome, also known as Roman Catholics. Affiliated Catholics are defined here as baptized Catholics plus catechumens. |
| Catholics (non-Roman) | Old Catholics and others in secessions from the Church of Rome since 1700 in the Western world, and other Catholic-type sacramentalist or hierarchical secessions from Protestantism or Anglicanism. |
| censorship, religious | The practice of censoring (deleting, banning, altering, excising) letters to and from a country, especially to intercept Christian material. |
| census | A large-scale formal act of counting or evaluating of people and property. |
| chaitya | A stupa (qv). |
| Charismatics | Baptized members affiliated to non-Pentecostal denominations who have entered into the experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit. |
| children | Term describing all persons under 15 years old, though often a distinction is made between infants (0-5 years old) and children proper, 5-14 years old. |
| Chinese folk-religionists | Followers of indigenous religions of China, representing an amalgamation of beliefs and practices that can include: universism (yin/yang cosmology with dualities earth/heaven, evil/good, darkness/light), worship of ancestors/gods/goddesses/spirits, divination, sacrifices, and elements from Taoism, Confucianism, neo-Confucianism, and/or Buddhism. |
| chorten | A stupa (qv). |
| Christendom | The traditional portion of the world in which Christianity prevails or which is governed principally under Christian institutions. |
| Christian | Followers of Jesus Christ as Lord, of all kinds, all traditions and confessions, and all degrees of commitment. |
| Christian world communions | Official name since 1979 of what were previously termed world confessional families (WCFs), most of which are rooted primarily in Europe and North America, giving expression to the common heritages of worldwide groups of churches. Most have their own organized world confessional councils (confessional conciliarism). World total: (2000) 250. |
| Christianity | The whole worldwide body of Christian believers and their religion. |
| Christians | Followers of Jesus Christ, including: (a) Catholics; (b) Protestants; (c) Orthodox; (d) Independents; and (e) unaffiliated. |
| clandestine religion | See hidden religion. |
| cluster | Language cluster (qv). In religion, a grouping or family of related religions. Culture cluster is a synonym for ethnocultural family. |
| Confucianists | Non-Chinese followers of the teachings of Confucius and Confucianism. Sometimes spelt Confucians. |
| continent | Defined by United Nations as one of 6 Major Areas/Regions/Macroregions. |
| continental area | UN definition of continent, now renamed major area. |
| conversion | A change in a person’s allegiance or membership in one religion to allegiance or membership in another. |
| conversion change | Change in religious allegiance in a country or body, i.e. the annual net aggregate of conversions to the body of new adherents from other religions or religious bodies minus defections (sometimes termed apostasies) from it of former adherents leaving to join other religions or religious bodies. |
| convert | A person converted to a religious belief, faith or religion from another religion. |
| converts | Persons who have become followers of a religion, leaving their former religion or nonreligion. |
| co-religionist | A person having the same religion as another. |
| cosmoreligion | A universal (non-local) religion open to all, with over 200 million adherents. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.