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Christianity is the second largest religion in Egypt. [note 1][1] The vast majority of Egyptian Christians are Copts. As of 2019, Copts in Egypt make up approximately 10 percent of the nation's population, with an estimated population of 9.5 million or 10 million. In 2018, approximately 90% of Egyptian Christians were Coptic Orthodox.
Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. The state religion of Egypt is Islam, although estimates vary greatly in the absence of official statistics. Since the 2006 census, religion has been excluded, and thus available statistics are estimates made by religious and non-governmental agencies.
Historically; many Copts were accountants, and in 1961 Coptic Christians owned 51% of the Egyptian banks. [71] A Pew Center study about religion and education around the world in 2016, found that around 26% of Egyptian Christians obtain a university degree in institutions of higher education. [72]
According to tradition, the Coptic Church was founded by Mark the Evangelist c. AD 42, and regards itself as the subject of many prophecies in the Old Testament. [12] The first Christians in Egypt were common people who spoke Egyptian Coptic.
Eusebius [42] credits Mark the Evangelist as the bringer of Christianity to Egypt, and manuscript evidence shows that the faith was firmly established there by the middle of the 2nd century. Although the Greek-speaking community of Alexandria dominated the Egyptian church, speakers of native Coptic and many bilingual Christians were the majority.
Egypt has one of the largest populations of Christian minorities in the Middle East, with approximately 16 million Christians living in the country, according to one estimate. The majority of ...
Historically, many Copts were accountants, and in 1961 Coptic Christians owned 51% of the Egyptian banks. [8] A Pew Center study about religion and education around the world in 2016, found that around 36% of Egyptian Christians obtain a university degree in institutions of higher education. [9]
There are also large Christian communities in other parts of the world, such as Indonesia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and West Africa where Christianity is the second-largest religion after Islam. The United States has the largest Christian population in the world, followed by Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and the Philippines.