An AD 2001 reality check: 50 new facts and figures about trends and issues concerning empirical global Christianity today. (from Table 1-1 in World Christian Trends,William Carey Library,David Barrett & Todd Johnson.) Download in pdf format

1. Every year the churches hold a megacensus costing $1.1 billion, sending out 10 million questionnaires in 3,000 languages, which covers 180 major religious subjects.
2. At a steady rate over the last 20 centuries, and in all 238 countries, 70 million Christians have been martyred -killed,executed,murdered -for Christ.
3. The 5 most dangerous of all Christian vocations (over 3% murder rates) are:bishops,evangelists,catechists,colporteurs,foreign missionaries.
4. Books primarily about Jesus in today’s libraries number 175,000 different titles in 500 languages, increasing by 4 newly published every day.
5. Emboldened by lax procedures,trusted church treasurers are embezzling each year $16 billion out of church funds,but only 5% ever get found out.
6. Christians spend more on the annual audits of their churches and agencies ($810 million) than on all their workers in the non-Christian world.
7. The total cost of Christian outreach averages $330,000 for each and every newly baptized person.
8. Despite Christ’s command to evangelize,67% of all humans from AD 30 to the present day have never even heard of his name.
9. 648 million Christians today (called Great Commission Christians)are active in Christ’s world mission; 1,352 million Christians ignore this mission.
10. Every person in the world belongs to, on average, 10 distinct and separate (and often conflicting) religions.
11. Organized Christianity has total contact with 3,590 religions but no contact at all with 353 other religions and their over 500 million adherents.
12. 14 million converted Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims have opted to remain within those religions in order to witness for Christ as active believers in Jesus as Lord.
13. Heads of the 50 major Christian World Communions, with 1.5 billion members, have since 1957 met annually for serious 3-day dialogue.
14. A huge new Christian nonconfessional megabloc,the Independents/Postdenominationalists,is growing rapidly and numbers 19% of all Christians.
15. These 386 million Independents in 220 countries have no interest in and no use for historic denominationalist Christianity.
16. From only 3 million in AD 1500,evangelicals have grown to 648 million worldwide,54% being Non-Whites.
17. The country with the fastest Christian expansion ever is China, now at 10,000 new converts every day.
18. Non-Christian countries have been found to have 227 million Bibles in place in their midst, more than needed to serve all Christians but poorly distributed.
19. Everywhere on Earth can now easily be targeted with at least 3 of the 45 varieties of effective evangelism.
20. Christian triumphalism -not as pride in huge numbers,but as publicized self-congratulation -is rampant in most churches,agencies,and ministries.
21. 124 million new souls begin life on Earth each year, but Christianity’s 4,000 foreign mission agencies baptize only 4 million new persons a year.
22. 91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism does not target non-Christians but targets other Christians in World C countries, cities, peoples, populations, or situations.
23. 818 unevangelized ethnolinguistic peoples have never been targeted by any Christian agencies ever.
24. 40% of the church’s entire global foreign mission resources are being deployed to just 10 oversaturated countries already possessing strong citizen-run home ministries.
25. Over 20 centuries Christians have announced 1,500 global plans to evangelize the world; most failed; 250 plans focused on AD 2000 fell massively short of stated goals.
26. The 3 least cost-effective countries over 1 million in population for Christian outreach are: Japan,Switzerland,Denmark.
27. The 3 most cost-effective countries over 1 million in population for Christian outreach are: Mozambique,Ethiopia,Tanzania.
28. Per hour of ministry,the 5 megapeoples most responsive to Christianity,Christ,and the gospel are: Khandeshi,Awadhi,Magadhi,Bai,Berar Marathi .
29. Per hour of ministry,the 5 megapeoples least responsive to Christianity,Christ,and the gospel are: Swedish,Russian,Lithuanian,Polish,Georgian .
30. Mainland China’s Christians have thousands of trained workers poised to begin evangelizing the world de novo soon after AD 2000.
31. Most Christian bodies insist on full accountability to the last cent in finance,but ignore or even decry statistics about Christian workers and ministries.
32. It costs Christians 700 times more money to baptize converts in rich World C countries (Switzerland)than in poor World A countries (Nepal).
33. Regular listeners to Christian programs over secular or religious radio/TV stations rose from 22% of the world in 1980 to 30% in 2000.
34. Christian communicators ignore the huge potential of the globe’s 983 lingua francas each with over 100,000 non-native speakers,or the 2,179 each over 100,000 total speakers.
35. Ethnoreligionists (animists,polytheists,shamanists) number 228 million in 6,000 tribes or peoples, mushrooming rapidly by 2.8 million a year.
36. Criminal penalties against clergy in sexual abuse cases now exceed $1 billion,causing a number of churches,dioceses,and denominations to be forced into bankruptcy.
37. Annual church embezzlements by top custodians exceed the entire cost of all foreign missions worldwide.
38. 150 major ethnolinguistic peoples each have over 100,000 unevangelized ethnoreligionists.
39. Since AD 1900,Christian urbanites have exploded from 100 million in 500 cities to 1,160 million in 5,000 cities.
40. From only one million in AD 1900, Pentecostals/Charismatics/Neocharismatics have mushroomed to 524 million affiliated (with unaffiliated believers, 602 million).
41. UBS global goals for Bibles distributed p.a.are over 200% achieved in 92 countries,over 100% in 92 other countries,but under 100% in 54 countries.
42. 98.7% of people have access to scripture in 6,700 languages leaving 78 million in 6,800 languages with no access at all.
43. Each year,180 million Bibles and New Testaments are wasted -lost,destroyed,or disintegrated -due to incompetence, hostility, bad planning, or inadequate manufacture.
44. Each year 600,000 full-time ordained workers (clergy,ministers,missionaries) reach retiring age; 150,000 then discover that their employers provide no old-age pensions.
45. Some 250 of the 300 largest international Christian organizations regularly mislead the Christian public by publishing demonstrably incorrect or falsified progress statistics.
46. As in all scientific research,70% of all new Christian books and published articles will never be quoted in print by their peers,ever.
47. 78 countries each have Great Commission Christians whose personal incomes exceed US$1 billion a year.
48. Out of 648 million Great Commission Christians,70% have never been told about World A’s 1.6 billion unevangelized individuals.
49. Depicted on semilogarithmic graphs, 16,016 Christian trends across 22 centuries (AD 30-AD 2200) reveal dominant roles of evangelization,martyrdom,and renewal.
50. Despite predictions of collapse of religion,long-term trends indicate that Christians and other religionists in AD 2200 are likely to number over 87% of the world ’s population.