Missions Today

The State of the Mission

  • In 2010 60% of the worlds Christians were non-western; this is projected to be at 70% by 2020.
  • In 1910, the continent of Africa was 10% Christian with 10 million Christians.  In 2010 Africa was 50% Christian (70% Sub-Saharan) with 389 million Christians.
  • In the year 1910 there were around 1 million Christians in China.  In 1949 the church in China had grown to about 5 million Christians.  In 2010 the number had exploded to 160 million Christians in China.
  • In 1890 there were around 143,000 Brazilian evangelical Christians.  In the year 2000 that number had exploded to 17.9 million.  It is safely projected that 50% of Brazil’s population will be evangelical Christian by 2014.
  • 50% of all foreign missionaries are now non-western missionaries being sent abroad from non-western churches.
  • In 1982 the Nigerian Evangelical Mission was formed.  It has a network of 90 missions agencies.  In 1986 there were 500 Nigerian missionaries.  In 2005 there were 5,200 Nigerian missionaries serving in 65 foreign countries.
  • The church in China has pledged to send out 100,000 missionaries.
  • The nation with the highest number of missionaries per 1000 Christians is Mongolia.
  • South Korea is the second largest missionary sending nation in the world.  In 1986 there were 93 missionaries from S. Korea.  In 2008 there were 16,000 Korean missionaries serving in 168 countries.
  • There are over 50,000 Indian missionaries serving with 220 missions organizations.  Most of these serve cross-culturally within their mostly unreached nation of India.
  • In 2006, there were over 9,200 Latin Americans serving as missionaries.  1,200 of these Latin American missionaries serve among Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.
  • 60% of the world’s Christians are in non-western nations while 83% of Christian wealth is in western churches.
  • Over 2 billion people, or roughly 1/3 of the earth’s population, know no one who can tell them of Jesus.
  • There are 16,000 people groups (nations) in the world today.  Over 6,000 of these are still unreached with the Gospel.
  • 90% of missionaries are now ministering among people groups which are already ‘reached’.
  • Out of every 100 missionaries only 2 go to minister among the unreached people groups of the world.
  • Out of every $100 spent on missions work, only about 1 cent goes to help reach the world’s unreached people groups.
  • 2/3 of the world’s population lives on the continent of Asia.  70% of Asia is still unreached with the Gospel.
  • Half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day.
  • 30,000 people starve to death every day.
  • There are around 13 million orphans in the world today.
  • Every Hour:  1,625 children are forced to live on the streets;  1,667 children die of malnutrition or diseases;  115 children become prostitutes; and, 257 are orphaned due to HIV/AIDS.