Devagar e sempre, com fé em Deus: Evangélicos Cearenses nos censos demográficos

Abstract

In this article we intend to appraise and to analyze some implicit trends in the data of the censuses from 1872 to 2000 that concern to the evangelical and catholic religion in the state of Ceará (Northeast of Brazil), comparing whenever possible with national and regional data. We work with informations that allow quantifying the evangelical growth in the state, the period of greater and smaller expansion, confronting the results in dialogue with the numbers of the Catholicism. Moreover, we observe the cities and micro-regions of greater and smaller evangelical presence, the gender and age, as well as the denominations that more gather up believers.