page_title: Christianity in India
section_title: Christian population in India
hierarchical_section_title: Christianity in India / Christian population in India
caption_attribution_description: English: District wise Christian population percentage, India census 2011.
context_page_description: Christianity is India's third-largest religion after Hinduism and Islam, with approximately 28 million followers, constituting 2.3 percent of India's population. According to Indian tradition, the Christian faith was introduced to India by Thomas the Apostle, who supposedly reached the Malabar Coast in 52 AD, although no written work seems to have survived from this period. According to another tradition Bartholomew the Apostle is credited with simultaneously introducing Christianity along the Konkan Coast. There is a general scholarly consensus that Christian communities were firmly established in the Malabar Coast of India by the 6th century AD, including some communities who used Syriac liturgies.
  Christians in India are members of different church denominations though some are also non-denominational. The state of Kerala is home to the Saint Thomas Christian community, an ancient body of Christians who according to tradition trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. They are now divided into several different churches and traditions.
context_section_description: In India, Christian Population is 27.8 million as per latest figure of 2011 Census which is about 2.3% of total Indian Population. Christianity is dominant religion in North East states of Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya while they make substantial population in states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Andaman Nicobar Islands.
  A 2015 study estimates some 40,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to Protestantism.
  The starting point for tackling religious demography in India is with official estimates from the government census about the status of religion. The Indian census has been taken faithfully every ten years since 1871 and has always included religion (along with population, race, rural distribution, and occupation, among others). The most recently published census data are from 2011. Subsequent estimates from 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 are also widely considered reliable.
caption: Percentage Christian population, India census 2011
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