Spoiler alert: MYTH!

The source of this claim is the World Chris­t­ian Ency­clo­pe­dia (Bar­rett, Kurian, and John­son; Oxford Uni­ver­sity Press), and it's taken hold of us by sheer force of repetition. However, it relies on too loose a definition of the word "denomination".

Accord­ing to the WCE, the 33,000 fig­ure rep­re­sents “world Chris­tian­ity”, NOT Protestantism. To be clear, the WCE breaks down "world Christianity" into the following broad categories:

▪ Inde­pen­dents: 22,000 denom­i­na­tions
▪ Protes­tants: 9,000 denom­i­na­tions
▪ Mar­gin­als: 1,600 denom­i­na­tions
▪ Ortho­dox: 781 denom­i­na­tions
▪ Catholics: 242 denom­i­na­tions
▪ Angli­cans: 168 denom­i­na­tions

Catholics need to stop cit­ing this num­ber, not only because it is out­landishly false but because pointing out how many Protes­tant denom­i­na­tions there are misses any point that should be taken seriously.

To those who ask what is a point that should be taken seriously?

Any divi­sion in the body of Christ is a scan­dal.

But that's a topic for another time.

P.S. My source for this was an article written by a Catholic from a Catholic website: https://www.ncregister.com/blog/we-need-to-stop-saying-that-there-are-33-000-protestant-denominations