The leadership of the Coptic Orthodox Church asserts greater accuracy in determining the number of Copts in Egypt than the official state authority, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), or national demographic surveys. Their claim rests on the argument that local parishes maintain reliable records of baptisms (see: C. Hulsman, Discrepancies Between Coptic Statistics in the Egyptian Census and Estimates Provided by the Coptic Orthodox Church, Arab-West Report Paper, May 30, 2012). Accessing these records, or understanding how they are compiled, remains highly challenging. While church leaders affirm their existence, the methods of their maintenance are opaque and largely speculative.