According to recent information provided by the Vatican, Muslims outnumber Catholics worldwide. At the end of 2008, there were 1.280 billion Muslims and 1.165 billion Catholics, reported Vittorio Formenti, director of the head office for statistics of the Roman Catholic Church. The Il Tempo newspaper stated that the number of Christians worldwide totals 2.145 billion. The figure for Muslims was not divided into Shia and Sunni or other Muslim communities. Formenti also said that the approximate figure for Muslims is estimated upon the birth rate in Muslim countries. It is supposed that someone who is born in a Muslim country, is automatically Muslim.
The APD news agency (Basel) reported for the first time that there are more Seventh-day Adventists than Jews. The members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which emerged from the 19th century Protestant revival movements in North America, observe the Sabbath (Saturday) along with the Jews as the Biblical day of rest. At the end of 2008, there were 16 million baptized adult Adventists and 13.3 million Jews worldwide.
There are currently 5.55 million Jews living in Israel and 7.76 million in the Diaspora, according to a report by the Jewish Agency. Around 5.3 million Jews live in the United States, 490,000 in France, 375,000 in Canada, 295,000 in Great Britain, 215,000 in Russia, 183,000 in Argentina, 120,000 in Germany, 107,000 in Australia and 96,000 in Brazil.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is active in 207 countries. In the United States, there are approximately 1,000,000 members, which represents only 6.25 per cent of the world membership. Latin America and Africa each have nearly 5.5 million members, followed by Asia with 3 million, Australia/Oceania with 500,000 and Europe with 400,000 members.
