 In the early 1980s, Protestants were mostly located in the Montagnard communities in southern Vietnam's central highlands.Present estimates of the number of Protestants range from the official government figure of 500,000 to claims by churches of 1,600,000 or more.The two officially recognized Protestant churches are the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV), recognized in 2001, and the smaller Evangelical Church of Vietnam North (ECVN), recognized since 1963.