[11] The words Christ and Christian derive from the Koine Greek title Christós (Χριστός), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ) (usually rendered as messiah in English).

By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion due to overall total fertility rate according to Pew Research Center.

[4] According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, Christianity will remain the world's largest religion in 2050, if current trends continue.

[21] In other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are likewise derived from the Greek, such as chrétien in French and cristiano in Spanish.

The first recorded use of the term (or its cognates in other languages) is in the New Testament, in Acts 11 after Barnabas brought Saul (Paul) to Antioch where they taught the disciples for about a year.

The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4, which exhorts believers: "Yet if [any man suffer] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf."

[25] Kenneth Samuel Wuest holds that all three original New Testament verses' usages reflect a derisive element in the term Christian to refer to followers of Christ who did not acknowledge the emperor of Rome.

[28] The earliest occurrences of the term in non-Christian literature include Josephus, referring to "the tribe of Christians, so named from him;"[29] Pliny the Younger in correspondence with Trajan; and Tacitus, writing near the end of the 1st century.

The latter verse makes it clear that Nazarene also referred to the name of a sect or heresy, as well as the town called Nazareth.

In Arabic-speaking cultures, two words are commonly used for Christians: Naṣrānī (نصراني), plural Naṣārā (نصارى) is generally understood to be derived from Nazarenes, believers of Jesus of Nazareth through Syriac (Aramaic); Masīḥī (مسيحي) means followers of the Messiah.

[39] Another Arabic word sometimes used for Christians, particularly in a political context, is Ṣalībī (صليبي 'Crusader') from ṣalīb (صليب 'cross'), which refers to Crusaders and may have negative connotations.

[37][40] However, Ṣalībī is a modern term; historically, Muslim writers described European Christian Crusaders as al-Faranj or Alfranj (الفرنج) and Firinjīyah (الفرنجيّة) in Arabic.

[41] This word comes from the name of the Franks and can be seen in the Arab history text Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh by Ali ibn al-Athir.

[50] The term is Kî-tuk in the southern Hakka dialect; the two characters are pronounced Jīdū in Mandarin Chinese.

In Japan, the term kirishitan (written in Edo period documents 吉利支丹, 切支丹, and in modern Japanese histories as キリシタン), from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholics in the 16th and 17th centuries before the religion was banned by the Tokugawa shogunate.

Today, Christians are referred to in Standard Japanese as キリスト教徒 (Kirisuto-kyōto) or the English-derived term クリスチャン (kurisuchan).

In ancient times, in the first centuries after the birth of Christ, when this region was called Scythia, the geographical area of Scythians – Christians already lived there.

[4] According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, if current trends continue, Christianity will remain the world's largest religion by 2050.

[58] Christianity is growing in Africa,[59] Asia,[60][61][62][63] Eastern Europe,[64] Latin America,[60] the Muslim world,[65][66] and Oceania.

According to the same study it was found that adherents under the classification Irreligion or other religions hold about 34.8% of the total global wealth.

[72] A Pew Center study about religion and education around the world in 2016, found that Christians ranked as the second most educated religious group around in the world after Jews with an average of 9.3 years of schooling,[73] and the highest numbers of years of schooling among Christians were found in Germany (13.6),[73] New Zealand (13.5)[73] and Estonia (13.1).

[85][86] Christians have made noted contributions to a range of fields, including philosophy,[87][88] science and technology,[89][90][91][92] medicine,[93][94] fine arts and architecture,[95][96] politics, literatures,[97] music,[98] and business.

[103][104] In 2019, a report[105][106] commissioned by the United Kingdom's Secretary of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to investigate global persecution of Christians found religious persecution has increased, and is highest in the Middle East, North Africa, India, China, North Korea, and Latin America, among others,[17] and that it is global and not limited to Islamic states.