The State of World Evangelism

February 1, 2007 - Statistics show that Christianity is the world’s largest religion. But billions have yet to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ, much less become His disciples.

Whether we serve as cross-cultural missionaries or seek to lead our next-door neighbors to Jesus, the task of world evangelism is given to all believers. The following articles give a glimpse of what God is doing through some of His witnesses in the world today. Will you, too, join in the great task assigned by our Lord?

EUROPE
Population: 729.8 million
Religion (in millions): 519.1 Christian*; 166.2 non-religious; 37.2 Muslim
Evangelical Christians: 17.3 million
Less than 1 percent evangelical: 24 countries
Foreign missionaries sent out: 16,077

AFRICA
Population: 784.3 million
Religion (in millions): 379.4 Christian; 324.1 Muslim; 68.6 traditional ethnic religion
Evangelical Christians: 116 million
Less than 1 percent evangelical: 14 countries
Foreign missionaries sent out: 3,126

SOUTH/LATIN AMERICA
Population: 519.1 million
Religion (in millions): 408.9 Roman Catholic; 21.4 non-religious; 14.7 traditional ethnic religion
Evangelical Christians: 54.9 million
Foreign missionaries sent out: 3,827

NORTH AMERICA
Population: 309.6 million
Religion (in millions): 259 Christian; 31.8 non-religious; 5.9 Jewish; 4.6 Muslim; 2.9 Buddhist
Evangelical Christians: 93.8 million
Foreign missionaries sent out: 50,720

ASIA
Population: 3.7 billion
Religion (in millions): 911.2 Muslim; 815 Hindu; 707.1 non-religious; 394.8 Buddhist; 382.2 Chinese of undocumented belief; 89.5 traditional ethnic religion
Evangelical Christians: 133.2 million
Less than 10 percent Christian: 44 countries
Foreign missionaries sent out: 13,607

AUSTRALIA/PACIFIC
Population: 31.2 million
Religion: 22.9 million Christian; 6.7 million non-religious; 396,800 Hindu
Evangelical Christians: 4.8 million
Foreign missionaries sent out: 3,526

Source: “Operation World,” 2001 edition
*For all regions, Christian includes all traditions and confessions of Christianity and does not denote degree of commitment or theological orthodoxy.