In 2011, a Pew Forum study of worldwide Christianity found that there were about 279 million classical Pentecostals, making 4 percent of the total world population and 12.8 percent of global Christendom Pentecostal.<ref name=PewGlobalChristianity67>Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (December 19, 2011,), [http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Christian/Christianity-fullreport-web.pdf ''Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population''], p. 67.</ref>
== Protestant missionaries and economic/societal development ==
''See also:'' [[Protestant cultural legacies]] and [[Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]]
[[File:Niall Ferguson.jpg|thumbnail|150px|right|The atheist and [[Harvard University]] historian [[Niall Ferguson]] declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."<ref>[http://blog.tifwe.org/the-protestant-work-ethic-alive-well-in-china/ The Protestant Work Ethic: Alive & Well…In China] By Hugh Whelchel on September 24, 2012</ref> ]]
The atheist and [[Harvard University]] historian [[Niall Ferguson]] declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."<ref>[http://blog.tifwe.org/the-protestant-work-ethic-alive-well-in-china/ The Protestant Work Ethic: Alive & Well…In China] By Hugh Whelchel on September 24, 2012</ref>
The article ''The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries'' published in ''Christianity Today'' notes:
{{Cquote|In his fifth year of graduate school, Woodberry created a statistical model that could test the connection between missionary work and the health of nations. He and a few research assistants spent two years coding data and refining their methods. They hoped to compute the lasting effect of missionaries, on average, worldwide...
One morning, in a windowless, dusty computer lab lit by fluorescent bulbs, Woodberry ran the first big test. After he finished prepping the statistical program on his computer, he clicked "Enter" and then leaned forward to read the results.
"I was shocked," says Woodberry. "It was like an atomic bomb. The impact of missions on global democracy was huge. I kept adding variables to the model—factors that people had been studying and writing about for the past 40 years—and they all got wiped out. It was amazing. I knew, then, I was on to something really important."
Woodberry already had historical proof that missionaries had educated women and the poor, promoted widespread printing, led nationalist movements that empowered ordinary citizens, and fueled other key elements of democracy. Now the statistics were backing it up: Missionaries weren't just part of the picture. They were central to it...
Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations.
In short: Want a blossoming democracy today? The solution is simple—if you have a time machine: Send a 19th-century missionary."<ref>Christianity Today, [https://archive.is/cDMnA The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries], January 8, 2014</ref>}}
=== Contemporary atheism lacks foreign missionaries spreading atheism in the world. No economic/societal development due to atheist missionaries spreading atheism ===
''See also:'' [[Atheism and economics]] and [[Atheism and sloth]] and [[Atheism and apathy]] and [[Atheism and motivation]]
Contemporary atheists lacks foreign missionaries spreading atheism in the world. There is no economic/societal development in developing countries due to atheist missionaries spreading atheism.
See also:
*[[Atheism and economics]]
*[[Atheism and sloth]]
*[[Atheism and apathy]]
*[[Atheism and motivation]]
== Communism, historical expansion of atheism, cooperation of communists and decline of the secular left ==