In the recent studies, researches have reported that Christian population has spread south from Europe and North America over the last century. The data was collected and compared between a list from the year 1900 and 2000. Africa displayed the greatest incline in Christians as a percentage of the population - from 9.2% in 1900 to 45.4%, attesting to the continuous efforts of missionaries all over the world to deliver the gospel to the unfortunate, underdeveloped lands. Oceania has also increased its Christian percentage over the last century by 4.8% while Europe and North America found declination of 17.6% and 13.6% respectively.
The findings also show an elaborate division within the faithfuls around the globe. Roman Catholics have maintained its staunch dominance over Christian denominations at 50.2% (-0.6% since 1900). Orthodox denominations have experienced a sharp decline from 22.1% to 10.2% whose ramification included an overwhelming increase in formation of iconoclastic groups (labeled 'independents') from 1.5% to 18.3%. The protestants and anglicans have experienced continual regression from 19.6% to 16.2% and 5.8% to 3.8% respectively.
Furthermore, an unfortunate overall result of Christian percentage of the population was a declination from 34.5% to 33.0%; however it must be noted that the world population has quadrupled since 1900.
