Facts About World Evangelism

What is the world’s population? How many people in the world are unreached? What percentage of money given to missions is actually used to reach unreached people groups?

Population of the World

Total Population (2024): 8.1 Billion People

Today there were 164,000 births and 77,000 deaths.

World Population by Religion

According to a study (based on the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion) by The Pew Forum, there are:

2,173,180,000 Christians (31% of world population), of which 50% are Catholic, 37% Protestant, 12% Orthodox, and 1% other.
1,598,510,000 Muslims (23%), of which 87-90% are Sunnis, 10-13% Shia.
1,126,500,000 No Religion affiliation (16%): atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion. One-in-five people (20%) in the United States are religiously unaffiliated.
1,033,080,000 Hindus (15%), the overwhelming majority (94%) of which live in India.
487,540,000 Buddhists (7%), of which half live in China.
405,120,000 Folk Religionists (6%): faiths that are closely associated with a particular group of people, ethnicity or tribe.
58,110,000 Other Religions (1%): Baha’i faith, Taoism, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Tenrikyo, Wicca, Zoroastrianism and many others.
13,850,000 Jews (0.2%), four-fifths of which live in two countries: United States (41%) and Israel (41%).

World Population by Region

Asia: 4,806,898,007 Percentage: 58.9 %

Africa: 1,515,140,849 Percentage: 18.6 %

Europe: 745,083,824 Percentage: 9.1 %

Latin America and Caribbean: 663,466,072 Percentage: 8.1 %

North America: 385,295,105 Percentage: 4.7 %

Oceania: 46,088,716 Percentage: 0.6 %

Great Commission Facts

Definition: Unreached people groups are those who lack an indigenous church capable of evangelizing their own people. People groups are distinct social groups where shared language and cultural practices create communal belonging. (State of the Great Commission Report, 16).

Fact: 86% of all unreached people groups live in the 10/40 window, the area between 10 and 40 degrees north, from West Africa to East Asia.

Fact: Only three percent of international missionaries go to the unreached (who compose 40 percent of the global population). Thus, 97 percent of missionaries are sent to people who already have gospel access. (State of the Great Commission Report, 15).

Fact: Nearly nine out of ten Muslims and Hindus in the world do not personally know a Christian. (State of the Great Commission Report, 15).

Fact: Only 6 percent of Christian giving is directed towards mission amongst non-evangelized or unreached people groups. In fact, only 1.7 percent of giving is directed towards reaching the unreached with the gospel. (State of the Great Commission Report, 41).

Fact: 91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism targets only other Christians.

Fact: Out of 140,000 Protestant missionaries, 76% work among nominal Christians, 8% among tribal people, 6% Muslims, 4% Non-religious/Atheists, 3% among Buddhists, 2% Hindus, 1% Jews.

Fact: 40% of foreign mission resources are deployed to just 10 oversaturated countries

Fact: The average Christian gives 1 penny a day to global missions.

Fact: 85% of all finances given to western missionaries is used for work among established churches rather than pioneer evangelism

Fact: The average Western missionary spends 3% of his/her time in direct evangelism.

Can You Help Us Reach the Unreached?

King Ministries is dedicated to preaching the Gospel to unreached people around the world. But we cannot do it without your help. Can you give a financial gift today to help us reach people who have never heard about Jesus before? To give today, click HERE.

Sources:

https://peteryoungren.org/world-evangelism-facts/

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/

https://lausanne.org/report