% Evangelized
Decline In Access
With the exception of Africa, all regions will witness an increase in the proportion of the population that is unevangelized in the coming decades. This is a stark reversal of a century of growing gospel access around the world.
An evangelized person is someone who has heard the gospel and responded personally to its message. Asia, and more specifically South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), is poised to remain the least evangelized region for many decades to come.
Mission Misaligned
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.
More missionaries are sent to Europe than Asia. Thus despite the fact that Asia has 60 percent of the global population (versus Europe with 10 percent), Asia contains the majority of the world’s unreached, and the cost of sending a missionary to Europe can exceed ten times that of sending a missionary (or equipping an indigenous missionary) in an unreached context in Asia or Africa.
No Presence, No Relationship
Most missionaries go to predominantly Christian or Post-Christian contexts, leading to a lack of connection to and understanding of adherents to other religions.
Nearly nine out of ten Muslims and Hindus in the world do not personally know a Christian. The lack of contact reinforces the notion that Christianity is a Western religion.
Global Missionary Concentration
Each line represents approximately 5000 missionaries.
