Evangelical churches have grown by 543% in 20 years in Brazil, according to a survey carried out by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo.
In 1990, there were just over 7,000 evangelical churches in the country. But by 2019 the number had surged to 109,560, with 17 new churches opening every day. This rate of expansion is so pronounced that one respected Brazilian demographer believes that evangelical Christians will outnumber Roman Catholics in under a decade from now.
The survey divided Christian denominations into four main groups: missionary: Baptist; Presbyterian and Methodist churches, with others including undetermined and Pentecostal denominations. The latter have the largest number of churches, nearly 49,000, followed by undetermined (25,554), missionary (22,400) and neo-Pentecostals (12,825). The researchers point out that the explosion of evangelical churches is matched by the increase in the number of evangelicals in Brazil, who could become a majority in the coming years.
