How many Christians are in the world and where are they located?- How many other major world religions are there?
- How many languages are there worldwide?
- How many international students visit the US annually?
- How many missionaries are there and where do they go?
- Could Christian giving finish the Great Commission?
Editors note: Find mission trip research and answers to some of these questions below. Full article, data, & answers linked at bottom of this article excerpt. This research is from 2024. For updated similar information, see The Status of Global Christianity, downloadable PDF from Gordan Conwell Theological Seminary and visit Lausanne Report on state of Christianity.
WORLDWIDE
- Total People Groups: 17,281
UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS
- Less than 2% Evangelical Christian.
- Total Unreached People Groups: 7,246
- Total Population of UPGs: 3.39 billion people
- Total Percentage of world: UPG’s make up 41.8% of world population
UNEVANGELIZED PEOPLES
- Greater than 2% Evangelical Christian but still great numbers of unsaved.
- Total Unevangelized People Groups: 2,960
- Total Population: 799.7 million
- Total Percentage of world: the unevangelized make up 9.9% of world population
REACHED PEOPLES
- Greater than 2% Evangelical Christian or majority Christian Population
- Total Reached People Groups: 7,129
- Total Population: 3.8 billion
- Total Percentage of world: the reached population makes up 46.9% of world population
WHAT IS THE 10/40 WINDOW?
Total Population in 10/40: 5.33 billion people
Total People Groups in 10/40: 8,731 people groups
Total UPG’s in 10/40: 6,013 Unreached People Groups totaling 3.28 billion people. 60% of all individuals
60% of unreached people groups live in countries closed to missionaries from North America.
Over 1,000 unreached people groups are NOT in the 10/40 Window, these total over 82 million individuals.
ALL MISSIONARIES
- All Missionaries in the World (Catholic, Protestant, etc.): 420,000 foreign missionaries [1]
- Missionaries in the Reached World : 324,600 foreign missionaries (77.3%) [estimates based on older percentage]
- Missionaries in the Unevangelized : 81,480 foreign missionaries (19.4%) [estimated]
- Missionaries in the Unreached : 13,860 foreign missionaries (3.3%) [estimated]
“ROUGHLY THIRTY-TIMES AS MANY MISSIONARIES GO TO REACHED PEOPLE GROUPS TO WORK WITH CHRISTIANS, AS GO TO UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS. FAR LESS GO TO THE FRONTIER PEOPLE GROUPS, WHERE THERE ARE AS YET NO BELIEVERS. – R.W. LEWIS
CHRISTIAN WORKERS
- Full time Christian Workers in the World : 5.5 million workers [2001 Status)
- Christian workers in the Reached World : 4.19 million local workers (75.9%)
- Christian workers in the Unevangelized : 1.3 million local workers (23.7%)
- Christian workers in the Unreached : 20,500 local workers (0.37%)
Christians number 2.632 Billion worldwide (all Catholic, Protestant, etc.,) within 7,129 total people groups compromising 32% of the world population.
This may surprise many, but Christianity is growing around the world and is growing faster than the rate of population. From 2020 to the mid-point of 2024, the world’s population is expected to grow from almost 6.15 billion people to more than 8.11 billion, a 0.87% growth trend. The number of Christians worldwide is expected to climb from more than 2.52 billion to 2.63 billion, a 1.08% growth. (Lifeway Research)
PROTESTANTS & EVANGELICALS
Protestants total 625 million worldwide and Evangelical Christians total 413 million.
In 2020 there were 550 churches for every one unreached people group. (Lifeway Research)
There are 57,000 Evangelical Christians for every one unreached people group.
All MISSIONARIES IN THE WORLD
- (Catholic, Protestant, etc.): 445,000 foreign missionaries [1]
- Missionaries in the Reached World : 343,000 foreign missionaries (77%) [estimated]
- Missionaries in the Unevangelized : 86,000 foreign missionaries (19%) [estimated]
- Missionaries in the Unreached : estimated 15,000 foreign missionaries (3.4%) [2]
MORE TTT OBSERVATIONS
- The ratio of UPG workers the total unreached world is: 1 missionary for every 216,300 people.
- There are 54,000 Evangelical Christians for every one unreached people group.
- Young people have traditionally led the way in going and there are roughly 21 million university students (2014).
CONCLUSION
Is God to blame for not “Calling” People to Missions?
If everyone is obeying God’s “calling” to be a missionary wherever they are then God is calling 99.9995% of people to work among the 44.3% of the world population that already has the gospel, and calling virtually no one (.0005%) to relocate among the other 55.7% of the world population that are not Christian. You have a better chance of being in a plane crash than being one of the few missionaries to the unreached out of the total 2 billion Christians in the world.
In light of God’s word, this seems unfathomable and it appears to be almost complete disobedience on the part of the Church worldwide to go make disciples of all the nations. Financially we are hoarding 99.99% of our income to ourselves and what little is given is mostly directed toward reached people groups.
The current status quo is to do virtually nothing to reach the UPG’s of the world. The percentages of man-power and money focused on UPG’s are almost undetectable they are so small. The amount of resources that fall off the Christian table for unreached peoples is more comparable (I Googled it…) with the number of skin cells you lose over a month’s time: something hardly worth calling a sacrifice of the body.
Reaching the world with the gospel is not a resource problem, it is a mobilization problem.
— Claude Hickman, The Traveling Team
Originally posted on our site in March, 2026. This is an excerpt from The Traveling Team, used with permission. To view all the data, maps, & sources, visit their stats page here. They try to keep data updated as much as possible.