Updates

Most countries have had a significant strengthening of their 2005 church membership data, as published reports increasingly become available to replace projections from earlier years.

It is a fact of research life that statistics are usually required for 'the present' but there is a significant time lag between when statistics are gathered and when they can be published. Census data, for example, often takes several years from the time of the data collection to the time of first publication. In the meantime, population estimates are made by projecting data from previous years.

The World Christian Database is now in the final stages of consolidating global denominational membership with published membership data for the year 2005. This, together with it's earlier consolidated position for the year 2000, will provide a solid basis for projection to 2010 which in time will become WCD's next 'base year'.

On Sunday 17 February 2008 the Kosovo Assembly issued a Declaration of Independence stating: "We, the democratically-elected leaders of our people, hereby declare Kosovo to be an independent and sovereign state."

Serbian President Boris Tadic responded that Serbia "will do everything in its power to annul the arbitrary and illegal declaration of Kosovo's independence that Serbia will never recognise."

While Kosovo, Serbia, and the world community work to resolve the implications of the Declaration, Kosovo has become the 240th entry in the World Christian Database list of countries, which includes non-sovereign territories.

Data on Kosovo, including all Christian denominations and the wider religious makeup, have been extracted from the Serbian data and both updated so that the two can be analyzed separately.

Search results for Kosovo.