Christian and Atheism Worldwide Demographics: Current Realities and Future Trends.

[Belacqua]

Proof and evidence are synonyms. Yes, numbers can be proof and evidence that a certain sum of people believe a certain thing. Yet, it is not proof or evidence that the thing they believe is true.

No, they are different. 

Evidence is any bit of input which increases confidence in a proposition. It may turn out in the end that the proposition is false, despite evidence in its favor. 

Proof shows that something is undeniably so. It's often said that proof is only possible in cases of pure logic or mathematics, though in real life we accept that certain things have been proven. 

Here's a simple example:

Suppose you go to a new town and ask 100 people "what's the best restaurant in this town?" And 99 of them give the same answer. This is pretty good evidence that the restaurant they name is the best one. In fact you may have randomly stumbled on the only 100 people in town who have bad taste, or who are investors in that restaurant, or who have some other reason to give you a bad answer. In fact there may be any number of better restaurants. But 99 out of a 100 is decent evidence.