The headline was straightforward enough.....Muslims more numerous than Catholics: Vatican.At first glance, the story appears to confirm that statement:
"Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday.
Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 percent."
"The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion."
There is one question I have about the statistic......brought up by this quote;
"He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 percent of the world's population -- or about 2 billion people."
For these statistics, the Christians have been separated into different denominations.......they note "Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants" which actually just touches the surface on the different Christian denominations.
Why, then, are Muslims not separated into Sunni and Shia for these statistics?
Is the number 1.3 billion Muslims for the total of both denominations added together or is it 1.3 billion Sunni?
So, the question still remains.....are there more Catholics than Sunni ?
