What this directory holds — and how far to trust it

1 · What this is

A record is listed here when a public source named it: a church's own website, a denominational directory, or a public listing such as Google Places. The directory grew by importing public listings and then checking individual fields against the churches' own sites. That history is visible in the numbers below — breadth came first, and depth is still being filled in.

This is a sample, not a census. We do not know how many churches exist in Malaysia, so we do not publish a national total, a population share or a growth trend.

2 · Where the entries are

Every entry, by state and federal territory. The bar is scaled to the largest state; the percentage is a share of all 4,055 entries.

Sabah and Sarawak together hold 1,703 of the 4,055 entries (42.0%). That reflects how this directory was assembled — a large Sabah and Sarawak import — not where Malaysia's churches are. Every comparison of states on this page is a comparison of our records.

The ten cities with the most entries

Of the 201 cities present. A city name can occur in more than one state, so each row names the state with the most entries under that name.

3 · How complete the records are

These five fields are what someone usually needs before visiting. Each row counts entries where the field is present and usable, out of 4,055. A missing field means we have not recorded or confirmed it — not that the church has no website or photo.

The directory also tracks other fields: name and coordinates are present on every entry, and how many denominations are established is covered in the next section.

4 · What “unverified” means

A denomination is recorded only when it has been established from a source. When it has not, the entry is labelled “Denomination unverified” rather than given a plausible default. 1,864 of 4,055 entries (46.0%) are in that state. It is a research state, not a failure, and the label is the honest one.

Verification is recorded per field, with the date a person checked that field against a source. A field with no date has never been verified, and the batch date on each record is when it was last machine-processed — this page never counts that as verification.

422 of 4,055 entries (10.4%) have at least one field verified; 3,633 (89.6%) have none.

Fields checked against a source

Every denomination category present (14), unverified first

“Unverified” comes first because this section is about it; the rest are ordered by how many entries they hold.

5 · Where the gaps are

Service times are the widest useful gap: 3,768 of 4,055 entries (92.9%) have none recorded. These are the states and cities holding the most entries without them — where a correction would help the most people.

The percentages in this section are shares of that state's or city's own entries, not of the whole directory.

6 · Method and limits

The figures are computed from the directory's own records and regenerated whenever that data changes. Each one is checked by two separate calculations before it can be published: the generator that writes them and a separate audit both have to agree.

Provenance: 3,176 of 4,055 entries (78.3%) began from a Google Places listing; the rest came from church websites, denominational directories and other public listings. Each record keeps the source that named it.

What this page never claims

• How many churches there are in Malaysia, or what share of the population is Christian.
• Growth over time: the directory does not measure the same places repeatedly.
• A ranking or endorsement of churches. A listing is not a comparison.
• Verification we have not recorded. A field with no date is unverified, and is shown as such.

Read more about the project on the about page →