Baptist churches are often regarded as an Evangelical Protestant denomination. Baptists emphasize a believer's baptism by full immersion, which is performed after a profession of faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. A congregational governance system gives autonomy to individual local Baptist churches, which are sometimes associated in organizations such as the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches or the Southern Baptist Convention. In the late 1990s, there were about 43 million Baptists worldwide, 33 million of them living in the United States.
Other large populations of Baptists exist in Africa, especially in Nigeria (called the Nigerian Baptist Convention), in Ghana (called the Ghana Baptist Convention), and in Sierra Leone (called the Sierra Leone Baptist Convention).
The Baptist Union of Great Britain is a focus for British Congregations.
In the UK, in fact, two streams of Baptist life based on two theological understandings of the death of Christ. General Baptists believed Christ died for everyone in general; the Particular Baptists (who emerged in the 1630s), believed he died for an elected few. The two groups ran in parallel, but in 1813 a General Meeting of the Particular Baptist Denomination was established. In 1832 it set aside the foundational Calvinist 1689 confession of faith and the New Connection of General Baptists joined with them – forming the Baptist Union. The more extreme Calvinists left to form the Strict and Particular Baptists.