Ten Astounding Facts and Figures: A Reality Check for Believers and Atheists

In this post, I cite a vast array of facts and figures that relate to the growth of religion the world over and of Christianity in particular. Get ready for some mind-blowers. There is bad news and good news for everyone.

If you are not subscribed to the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, you don’t know what you are missing. For less than 10 dollars, with an e-subscription, you will have access to the entire 33 year archive (go here). Wildly inaccurate information about the effective numerical strength of the world’s religions and confessions is difficult to avoid. Still, there are a number of researchers who have dedicated their careers to the study of the data, with vast experience of the facts on the ground. Many of them write regularly for IBMR. In particular, I have in mind David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Crossing, whose work I cite below. If the academic institution you are connected with is smart, it subscribes to IBMR and to the World Christian Database.

Here are some astounding facts and figures:

1#. Predictions of the collapse of religion notwithstanding, trends indicate that religionists in ad 2200 are likely to comprise over 87% of the world’s population [IBMR Jan 2008, 29]. The number of Christians as a percentage of world population now stands at 33.3%. If present trends continue, the percentage will top 50% before 2200. The world’s population is currently increasing at a rate of 1% a year; the non-Christian religious population, by 1.16%; the Christian population, by 1.32% [IBMR Jan 2009, 32].

2#. Every 24 hours, the number of atheists in the world is estimated to increase by 900; of Jews, by 330; of Buddhists, by 7,700; of Hindus, by 34,000; of Muslims, by 70,000; of Christians, by 82,000 [IBMR Jan 2009, 32].

3#. 10 million Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims remain within those religions but self-identify as believers in Jesus Christ as Lord [IBMR Jan 2008, 29].

4#. Regular listeners to Christian programs over secular or other religious radio/TV stations rose from 22% of the world in 1980 to 39% in 2008 [IBMR Jan 2008, 29].

5#. Out of the global increase of 77,000 affiliated Christians every day [2008 data], 70,000 - 91% - are located in Africa, Asia, or Latin America [IBMR Jan 2008, 29]. But that’s not all. As Mark Noll points out in his latest book (The New Shape of World Christianity [Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2009] 21):

This past Sunday the churches with the largest attendance in England and France had mostly black congregations. About half of the churchgoers in London were African or African-Caribbean. Today, the largest Christian congregation in Europe is in Kiev, and it is pastured by a Nigerian of Pentecostal background.

These figures are a hint of how misleading religious statistics can be. Aggregate estimates of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, for example, do not distinguish between adherents whose affiliation is little more than a birthright, and adherents who regularly attend mosque, church, or synagogue. For example, a little less than half of the world’s Orthodox Christians (252,891,000) are affiliated with the Patriarchate of Moscow – 111,404,000. But church attendance in Russia – including the non-Orthodox, far more faithful, as minorities tend to be – is at a mere 2% of a population of 143 million. Another example: according to the Catholic Church’s own statistics, in some of Europe’s largest dioceses, the percentage of Catholics who attend Mass regularly has slipped to single digits. It is no different or worse among Protestants and Anglicans.

6#. As Mark Noll points out (op. cit., p. 20), “in 1970 there were no legally functioning churches in all of China; only in 1971 did the communist regime allow for one Protestant and one Roman Catholic Church to hold public worship services, and this was mostly a concession to visiting Europeans and African students from Tanzania and Zambia.” Now, China is the country with the fastest Christian expansion ever, with an estimated 16,500 new additions (via adult conversion and births) every day [IBMR Jan 2008, 29]. Christians in China number over 50 million on the most conservative of assumptions. The true figure is probably at least twice that much. It is quite possible that more people attend church in China on a given Sunday than in all of so-called “Christian Europe” (Noll, p. 20).

7#. From only 1 million in 1900, Pentecostals/Charismatics/Neocharismatics have shot up to 605 million affiliated believers [IBMR Jan 2008, 29; Jan 2009, 32]. It is a safe bet that the number of active (as opposed to nominal) Christians who belong to this megabloc is higher than the number of active Christians who do not belong to it, among Roman Catholics, Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox combined.

8#. 86% of all Buddhists, Hindus, and Moslems do not personally know a Christian [IBMR Jan 2008, 29]. It stands to reason then that 99% do not personally know a Jew.

9#. 91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism does not target non-Christians but targets other Christians [IBMR Jan 2008, 29].

Last but not least, a statistic that has to warm the heart of community-minded biblical bloggers (in the space of less than 3 years, I have cited other blogs more than 1000 times, and have been cited by other blogs more than 1000 times):

10#. As is true with scientific research, 70% of all new Christian books and published articles will never be quoted in print by their peers, ever [IBMR Jan 2008, 29]. 

Comments

[Alex]

Sometimes I think there is hardly any opportunity for mission left in the world and then I am stunned by #8 on your list. While that item is a sad state of affairs, it is actually the most encouraging on the list. There's a lot we can do simply by getting to know a Hindu, Bhuddist, Muslim, or Jew.

[Ranger]

Alex,
As a missionary living in Southeast Asia, who frequents Islamic and Communist countries, let me assure you...there are plenty of mission opportunities left!

John,
I don't talk much with atheists anymore, when not online, since they're a rare breed outside of the West. Still, it's very common to hear or read online about the rapid growth of atheism worldwide and how surely the day is coming when we can throw off our religion, etc. Usually, these claims come from sectors of the scientific community, but not from sociologists (unless like Zuckerman they are doing a piece for the Cambridge Companion to Atheism, haha).

What sociologists and missiologists know that apparently hasn't made the way to the rest of the world, is that atheism is actually still in a decline against population growth that started in the late 1960s. When the enforced atheism of the Soviet Union and China started to crumble (most rapidly in the 80s), so did the atheist growth of the 20th century.

As I've stated plenty of times, worldwide atheism may claim 800 million, but 600 million of those are Chinese atheists who commonly believe in ghosts, sacrifice to their ancestors and pray multiple times a day while burning jos sticks. Atheism, using the western definition of complete anti-supernaturalism, is very rare outside of Western Europe and the United States...and as the stats above show...babies aren't as common in those areas today as they were a hundred years ago.

Also, a few years back I went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for a service. It's extremely fundamentalist Baptist, but with my Reformed Baptist heritage, I couldn't help but go (Spurgeon and all). The congregation was majority African and Carribean. It was really cool, and not something I expected at all.

Personally, I've never had a better experience than worshipping in a local church here in Malaysia that has a congregation mixed of Chinese (mainland and overseas), Kenyans, Nigerians, Indians, Pakistanis, Malay (but don't tell the government), Vietnamese, Bangladeshi and one couple from America. It's an awesome experience and I look forward to the day when we will all experience it in our churches.

[JohnFH]

The ability of scientists to see whatever they want to see in the data seems to be just about on a par sometimes with the seers of old who predicted the future on the basis of an examination of sheep entrails.

Like you, Ranger, some of my happiest memories of Christian community have to do with worship in a congregation that mirrored the globe. The English-language church in Rome Italy was like that, and probably still is. A third of the congregation was filipino, a third African, mostly from Ghana, another third from everywhere, Sri Lankan, Italian, white South African, British, even a stray American or two.