In the last 20 years, Brazil has seen a surprising expansion of Evangelical Christians, especially the so-called Pentecostal or neo-Pentecostal denominations. These are the findings of a recent study by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea).
An analysis of the 124,529 religious institutions registered in Brazil’s RAIS labor database in 2021 shows that more than half of them were Pentecostal or neo-Pentecostal churches.
Official places of worship for these denominations have quadrupled in two decades in Brazil, reaching nearly 36,000 in 2021. The growth is linked to a proliferation of small religious congregations, generally due to dissent from larger organizations.
Another 19 percent of religious institutions are of other older Evangelical Protestant denominations — such as Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, and Anglican — the first groups of Protestants to arrive in Brazil.
Pentecostal churches, largely derived from groups in the U.S., began arriving in Brazil around the 1920s. They claimed to perform miraculous feats, such as healing the sick.
Neo-Pentecostal churches came around next, incorporating elements of Brazilian culture into Pentecostalism. These denominations are strong believers in the so-called “prosperity gospel,” according to which it is God’s will to bless his most devout followers with wealth.
In the 1960s, 90 percent of Brazil was Catholic. By 2010, it was 64...
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