MAPPING THE CHRISTIAN POPULATION A Report on the Size and Distribution of the North Africa, Middle East, Arab Gulf and Central Asia Christian Population December 2009 One Challenge International P.O. Box 4475 Worthing, West Sussex BN11 3YH UK

CHRISTIANS AROUND THE WORLD 227 milli on 20 million 427 million 350 million 300 million 123 million 410 million Source: Joshua Project.

Majority Religion Christian Islam Hindu Buddhist Non-religious Source: Joshua Project.

Recent Progress in the World Evangelical Christianity is growing 2x faster than Islam and 3x faster than Buddhism and Hinduism. Source: Joshua Project.

Conversion rates: Source: Joshua Project. Conversion growth is the annual increase (or decrease) in followers of a particular faith that is attributable to a shift of faith allegiance. These figure is an annual average measured and forecasted from the years “An Overview of the World by Religious Adherents”, from the Mission Frontiers June 2000.

The World in 2000 by Religious Adherence Evangelicals are defined as the broad stream of Christians who are affiliated with a Christian denomination or movement that actively evangelizes or sends missionaries. Pentecostals/Charismatics and evangelicals are overlapping subsets of the larger total of all Christians. The total growth rate is the sum of growth that occurs by births minus deaths and by a shift of faith allegiance (conversion growth).

The World’s Christians Source: Joshua Project.

The World’s Muslims Source: Joshua Project.

The World’s Buddhists Source: Joshua Project.

The World’s Hindus Source: Joshua Project.

Percent Unevangelized Per Country Source: Joshua Project.

Unevangelized Population (in millions) Majority of the Unevangelized World 1India344,000,000 2China262,000,000 3Pakistan144,000,000 4Indonesia68,600,000 5Iran48,700,000 6Thailand34,100,000 7Algeria32,900,000 8Morocco30,900,000 9Bangladesh30,000,000 10Afghanistan26,000,000 Source: Joshua Project.

Christians and the Unevangelized (blue) (red)

How the Christian people are distributed?

Mapping the Christians in North Africa, Middle East, Arab Gulf and Central Asia There are about xxx billion Christian living in the world today. Although in numbers there are more Christian people over the world, in this region the Muslim population predominates. In average, Central Asia has the major percentage in the considered sample, about 7.1%, followed by Middle East. Source: OW.

DISTRIBUTION PER REGION: NORTH AFRICA Egypt dominates with about 12.98% of its population that is Christian. Of this percentage, 2.50% are evangelical. Source: OW.

DISTRIBUTION PER REGION: MIDDLE EAST In the Middle East, Lebanon counts with approximately 32% Christians, above the average of the region, that is 6.8%. Source: OW.

DISTRIBUTION PER REGION: ARAB GOLF In the Arab Golf both Bahrain and Qatar have approximately 10% of Christians, followed by United Arabic Emirates with 9.25%, much above than the average of the region, of 6.5%. Source: OW.

DISTRIBUTION PER REGION: CENTRAL ASIA In the Central Asia Region, on average 7.1% of the population is Christian. Just Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic are above the average, with 24.66% and 7.83%, respectively. Source: OW.

DISTRIBUTION PER REGION: OTHERS Considering in the analysis Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, we can observe that these countries are in the majority Muslim countries. Source: OW.

Unreached People Groups Source: Joshua Project.

Countries with the Most Unreached Peoples India China Pakistan Bangladesh Nepal India China Pakistan Bangladesh Nepal Country # Peoples # Unreached Peoples Source: Joshua Project.

Note the concentration of Unreached People Groups in India, SE Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

Here we note a distinct need for churches in the North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia regions, the part of the world with the highest percentage of Muslims.

Putting together unreached people groups and population to church ratios, we see that the greatest needs for Church Planting Movements are in the band stretching from Northwest Africa to Southeast Asia.

UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUP IN THE CONSIDERED REGIONS Source: OW.

Missionary presence Source: Joshua Project.

CROSS-CULTURAL MISSIONARIES WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? Source: Joshua Project.

Data from: Operation World Joshua Project One Challenge International P.O. Box 4475 Worthing, West Sussex BN11 3YH UK THANK YOU!