Christianity is a minority religion in Maharashtra, a state of India. Approximately 79.8% of the population of Maharashtra are Hindus, with Christian adherents being 1.0% of the population.[citation needed] The Roman Catholic archdiocese whose seat is in Maharashtra is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay. There are two different Christian ethnic communities in Maharashtra: the Bombay East Indians, who are predominantly Roman Catholic, and the Marathi Christians, who are predominantly Protestant with a small Roman Catholic population.[citation needed]
Catholic Christians in Maharashtra are mainly concentrated in the Konkan division, especially Vasai (Bassein), Mumbai (Bombay) & Raigad (Colaba) districts; they are known as Bombay East Indians; they were evangelised by Portuguese missionaries during the 15th–16th centuries. Protestants who reside throughout the Maharashtra, being significant in Ahmednagar, Solapur, Pune, Aurangabad, and Jalna, are called Marathi Christians; they were evangelized by British and American missionaries during British rule in the Bombay Presidency.
The Church of North India has dioceses in the state and is a large Protestant church with full communion with the Anglican Church. There are also some members of the Christian Revival Church in Maharashtra, who live mostly in the western coastal regions of the state.
| Year | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 2001[1] | 1,058,313 |
1.09
|
| 2011[2] | 1,080,073 |
0.96
|
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| Christianity |
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- ^ "Total population by religious communities". Censusindia.gov.in. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ^ "Indian Census 2011". Census Department, Government of India. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.