Unsettling Statistics

The "10/40 Window"

The world's population is estimated to be 6.5 billion people, with almost 28% (1.8 billion) considered Unreached, even though Christian work occurs among most of them.

Most of the Unreached people groups are located geographically in what some scholars call the "10/40 Window" - the eastern hemisphere between 10 deg N and 40 deg N latitude - covers only one-third of the earth's land mass but contains two-thirds of its population. This region includes the heart of the Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist religions, as well as 80% of those enduring the world's lowest quality of living.

Tragically, only 2.4% of the world's missionaries are deployed to this "window", and they operate on only 0.01% of the income of the world's Christians. As a result, over 50,000 souls in this area perish every day (26 million annually) without ever hearing the Gospel.

Countries closed to Missionaries

It has been said that 60% of unreached people groups live in countries that are closed to missionaries from North America.
For those Christians who take the Great Commission seriously, however, no country should be considered "closed" when it can be reached by land, air or sea.

Internationals

Approximately 22 million internationals visit the US each year. Of these, over 7 million are university students from 220 countries--25% of which prohibit Christian missionaries.

International Students

80% of these students will return to their home countries without having never been invited to an American home.

Heads of State

40% of the world's 220 Heads of State once studied in the United States.

10/40 Window

60% of international students come from the 10/40 window.

Missionaries

Only 10% of international students are reached by ministries while in the United States.

Resources

Out of the 12.3 trillion US dollars collectively earned every year, worldwide church members donate less than 2% (213 billion) to Christian causes. Of these funds, only 11.4 billion is dedicated to Foreign Missions, 87% of which supports work among population groups that are already Christian.

Worldwide Churches

Devote less 15% of their personnel, finance, prayer, and tools to bless unreached people groups.

American Churches

Spend 4.5% of their resources on cross-cultural efforts in already-reached people groups, and only 0.5% to reach the unreached.

American Evangelicals

Could provide all of the funds needed to plant a church in each of the 6,400 people groups with only 0.2% of their income.

Missionaries

If all the missionaries needed came from this country, less than 0.5% of evangelicals aged 18 - 35 could form the teams required.

The Church has over 100 times the resources needed to plant native churches in every unreached people group on Earth.

Protestant Missionaries

Out of the 430,000 missionaries from all branches of Christendom, only 140,000 are from Protestant churches. Only 64,000 of these Protestant missionaries originate from the United States, and less than 3% work among unreached peoples.

Persecution and the global Church

Active persecution of Christians takes place in: Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam, China, Iran, Morocco, Libya, Egypt and Algeria. Over 160,000 believers will be martyred this year.

The United States provides only 30% of the world's missionaries. This declining participation is being overtaken by increased participation from Africa, Latin America and Korea.

Of those involved in missions in the US:

98% are Senders (Financial Support, Prayers, Mobilizers, Pastors)
0.5% are Servicers (Administrative, Tech Support, Training, Communication)
1.5% are Missionaries (Church Planting, Tentmaking, Tribal Outreach, Health Services)

Global Outreach

Reaching the Lost

Last year alone, about 120 million people were presented the gospel for the first time.

Spreading the Word

About 1.7 billion people now listen to Christian radio or watch Christian TV on a monthly basis.

Proclaiming the Gospel

Christians now spend 388 billion man-hours every year proclaiming the gospel in evangelism.

7 Key Changes in the Global Religious Landscape

The statistics above are adapted from data by David B. Barrett and Todd M Johnson of the Global Evangelization Movement web site. Other portions come from Patrick Johnstone's The Church is Bigger Than You Think, Bill and Amy Stearns' Catch the Vision 2000, and the course material for Vision for the Nations published by the US Center for World Mission. Additional data used from www.peoplegroups.org and www.joshuaproject.net.