Mission Data & Sources

This is the full data appendix behind the site — kept in one plain, citable place so researchers, writers, pastors and AI answer engines can check any number they see elsewhere on Love on Mission. All figures are rounded estimates and vary by source, definition and year. For the same figures with charts and narrative, read The State of the Great Commission 2026.

Global snapshot

• World population: ~8.3 billion (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate)
• Christians worldwide: ~2.6 billion — roughly a third of humanity (Gordon-Conwell CSGC, 2026)
• People without meaningful Gospel access: ~2.3 billion
• Total distinct people groups: 10,423 (Joshua Project)
• Unreached people groups: 4,490 — about 43.1% of all groups
• Frontier people groups: 3,214 — fewer than 1 in 1,000 follow Jesus
• Population within frontier groups: ~1.9 billion
• Population within unreached groups: ~3.58 billion

The long arc: 1900 to today

• Christians worldwide: ~558 million (1900) → ~2.6 billion (2026) — roughly 4.7×
• Christians in Africa: ~9 million (1900) → ~700 million today — roughly 75×
• Share of Christians in the Global South: 17.6% (1900) → ~69% (2026) → ~78% projected (2050)
• Languages with some Scripture: a few hundred (1900) → 3,700+ today (Wycliffe / ProgressBible)

The Global South shift, by decade

Share of the world's Christians living in the Global South versus the Global North:

• 1900: 17.6% South / 82.4% North
• 1950: 28.0% / 72.0%
• 1970: 43.0% / 57.0%
• 2000: 58.9% / 41.1%
• 2020: 66.6% / 33.4%
• 2025: 69.0% / 31.0%
• 2050 (projected): 78.0% / 22.0%

By region

• Sub-Saharan Africa: ~718M Christians of ~1.2B — 59.8%, fastest growing
• Latin America: ~603M of ~665M — 90.7%, strong
• Europe: ~553M of ~748M — 73.9%, declining
• North America: ~278M of ~375M — 74.1%, declining
• Asia-Pacific: ~387M of ~4.7B — 8.2%, growing
• Middle East / North Africa: ~24M of ~600M — 4.0%, persecuted

World religions

Rounded estimates of religious identification, not active practice. Shares do not total exactly because of rounding. (CSGC Status of Global Christianity 2026; Pew Research Center)

• Christians: ~2.6B — 32%
• Muslims: ~2.0B — 25%
• Hindus: ~1.1B — 14%
• Non-religious (agnostic and atheist): ~1.0B — 12%
• Buddhists: ~550M — 7%
• Folk and ethnic religions: ~450M — 5%
• Other: ~300M — 4%

Scripture access

Wycliffe Global Alliance, Scripture Access Statistics, 2024 edition (published October 2024) — the latest figures this site has verified.

• Living languages: ~7,400, spoken by roughly 8 billion people
• Full Bible: 756 languages — about 6 billion people have the whole Bible in a language they speak
• New Testament only: 1,726 languages — a further ~880 million people
• Some Scripture (portions): 1,274 languages
• Any Scripture at all: 3,756 languages — up from a few hundred in 1900
• Translation under way: 3,500+ languages, including some that already have Scripture
• No Scripture and no work begun: 985 languages — roughly 100 million people

Persecution

Open Doors, World Watch List 2025 (reporting period October 2023 to September 2024) — the latest edition this site has verified.

• Christians facing high levels of persecution and discrimination: ~380 million — about 1 in 7 worldwide; 1 in 5 in Africa; 2 in 5 in Asia
• Killed for faith-related reasons: 4,476, the majority in Nigeria
• Churches and Christian buildings attacked: 7,679
• Christians forcibly displaced: ~210,000
• Ten hardest countries: North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan

The mission force

CSGC Status of Global Christianity 2026.

• Cross-cultural missionaries: ~450,000, sent across a cultural or national boundary
• Largest sending nations by total workers: United States, Brazil, South Korea, Philippines, Nigeria

Discipleship multiplication

If one disciple makes two disciples who each make two more, on a roughly two-year cycle:

• Year 1: 1 · Year 5: 16 · Year 10: 512
• Year 15: 16,384 · Year 20: 524,288
• Year 25: 16.7 million · Year 30: 536 million · Year 33: ~8.6 billion

Addition reaches hundreds. Multiplication reaches the world. This is arithmetic, not a promise — but it is why Jesus said make disciples, not converts.

Live movement progress

These figures are read live from the shared Evangelize.World group registry (approved listings only) and are the same numbers shown on Evangelize.World, Love on The World and this site:

• Outreach groups listed: 12 (goal: 100)
• Cities with a group going out: 12 (goal: 25)
• Nations: 1 (goal: 10)
• Cities: Brampton, Brantford, Burlington, Grimsby, Guelph, Hagersville, Hamilton, Moncton, Niagara, Simcoe, St. Catharines, Waterloo Region — all in Canada
• Years of continuous weekly street outreach: 10+

Snapshot taken 2026-08. For the current count, see the live progress section.

Definitions

• Unreached people group: an ethnic or cultural group with no indigenous community of believing Christians large enough to evangelise the rest of the group without outside help — commonly measured as under 2% evangelical.
• Frontier people group: the least-reached category — fewer than 1 in 1,000 follow Jesus, with no indigenous Gospel movement at all.
• Without Gospel access: no nearby church, no Scripture in the heart language, no believing friend. It describes access, not the value or dignity of any people.
• 10/40 Window: the band between 10° and 40° north latitude across North Africa, the Middle East, and South and Central Asia.
• Oikos: the Greek word for household — a person's web of close relationships, usually 8–15 people.
• Discipleship multiplication: making disciples who make disciples.

Sources

• Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary — global Christian population and the Global South shift
• Joshua Project — people-group counts, unreached and frontier classifications
• UN World Population Prospects — world and regional population
• Pew Research Center — religious demography
• Wycliffe Global Alliance / ProgressBible — Bible translation and Scripture access status
• Open Doors — World Watch List, persecution of Christians
• Evangelize.World shared group registry — live movement figures

How to cite

Name the page, Love on Mission, its canonical URL, and the source year attached to any statistic. Please keep methodological qualifiers attached to mission figures — dropping the word “estimate” changes the claim.