Where the church stands in Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific holds around 4.7 billion people — more than half of humanity — and only about eight in a hundred identify as Christian. It contains the largest unreached populations on earth: India alone has more than two thousand unreached people groups, and Japan is the largest unreached nation in the developed world. Most of the 10/40 Window lies here.
It is also where some of the most remarkable church growth of the modern era has happened, usually under pressure: China's church multiplied from about one million to tens of millions after foreign missionaries were expelled; Nepal went from a handful of believers to hundreds of thousands; South Korea and the Philippines became major sending nations. Growth and gap sit side by side.
Signs of hope
Indigenous house-church movements in China, India and Nepal, and Korean and Filipino believers carrying the Gospel across the region and into the Gulf.
The honest difficulty
Anti-conversion laws, surveillance of churches, and billions of people in Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim contexts with no believing community large enough to reach them.
How to pray for Asia-Pacific
Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.
- Pray for the more than two thousand unreached peoples of India.
- Ask God to protect house-church leaders under surveillance in China.
- Pray for Japan — free, wealthy, and barely reached after 150 years.
- Thank God for Korean and Filipino workers reaching nations no missionary visa can enter.
Nations in Asia-Pacific on this site
Each profile carries church size, unreached peoples, what is going well, what is hard, and four prayer points.
Questions people ask about Asia-Pacific
How many Christians are there in Asia-Pacific?
About 387 million of Asia-Pacific's roughly 4.7 billion people identify as Christian — around 8.2% of the population. The trend is growing. Figures follow Pew Research Center's regional definitions and the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, and are rounded estimates that vary by source and year.
Is Christianity growing in Asia-Pacific?
Most of the world lives here, and most of the unfinished task is here. Indigenous house-church movements in China, India and Nepal, and Korean and Filipino believers carrying the Gospel across the region and into the Gulf. At the same time: Anti-conversion laws, surveillance of churches, and billions of people in Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim contexts with no believing community large enough to reach them.
Which nations in Asia-Pacific are least reached?
Of the 13 Asia-Pacific nations profiled on this site, 2 are frontier and 7 are unreached. Afghanistan (frontier, about 0.02% Christian); Bangladesh (unreached, about 0.5% Christian); China (unreached, about 7% Christian); India (unreached, about 2.4% Christian); Japan (unreached, about 1.5% Christian); North Korea (frontier, about 1.5% Christian); Pakistan (unreached, about 1.8% Christian); Thailand (unreached, about 1.2% Christian); Uzbekistan (unreached, about 1% Christian)