This website's description of each region and country is divided into two parts:

The statistics are included as background to the prayer information.

A brief explanation of their significance is given below. A fuller explanation of the sources and how these figures were handled is given in Statistical Sources.

Availability, consistency and accuracy of secular, religious and Christian statistics vary enormously from country to country and among denominations. Some denominations do not even keep statistics. Inadequate sources, varying dates of publication and my further editing and compiling of the statistics all add to the margin of error. We have used the most recent and reliable information available. We therefore plead for the sympathy of the reader for any errors or discrepancies discovered. Please send any corrections for inclusion in future editions to:

www.operationworld.org or send to

Our prayer is that these statistics may present a reasonably balanced account of what God is doing in our world, and the extent of the unfinished task. Only in the World Christian Encyclopedia and in Operation World can such a complete body of data relating to world evangelization be found — with all their deficiencies.

On this website is a complete set of data we gathered covering:

All the information is sourced. Where estimates or derivations have been made from existing data, this is indicated. We do not have a unique peoples or languages database. These may be found respectively in the 2001 World Christian Encyclopedia, Volume 2 and in the WBT Ethnologue of 2001 — Operation World research has had significant input into both of these publications.

Below is an explanation of how each category of statistics is handled in the order and format used throughout the website.

Our statistical base date is June 2000. Most of the statistics used are compiled from data gathered between 1996 and 2001. The textual information is valid for May 2001.

Area. Given in square kilometres, the area does not imply approval or disapproval of the political status quo of disputed territories but is a reflection of the actual situation in May 2001. In this category are such areas as the Western Sahara (included under Morocco) and the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas — included as a British dependent territory).

Population. Figures given are for 2000, 2010 and 2025. These figures are not rounded but are exact quotes of estimates from the 1998 UN population database. Average annual growth rates are given in the second column, and population density in people/sq.km is given in the third column rounded to the nearest whole number.

Capitals and Cities. Statistics were derived from a number of sources. As far as possible, the conurbation figure is given and not just the population that may live within specific municipal boundaries. The figures given are often significantly higher than those officially quoted. Most world-class cities are mentioned by name, i.e. those with populations that exceed one million.

The ethnic diversity is shown in a manner considered the most helpful for the reader.

1 Major groupings of peoples are given as a percentage of the country's total population. The larger ethnic groups within those groupings are given in absolute numbers, and are valid for June 2000. Subsets of peoples are indented but any percentage figure is in relation to the national population.

2 Smaller peoples are not mentioned by name unless there is a particular challenge or point of wider interest.

3 The total number of ethno-linguistic peoples given in the country text is derived from our own sources where known or appropriate. Those in the regional tables are derived from the 2001 World Christian Encyclopedia and from the AD2000 Joshua Project List of 1997. In both sets of tallies, the totals represent the sum total of identifiable ethno-linguistic peoples within a country that fit the parameters of the respective lists. For instance, the Tamil are counted 33 times in the global totals because Tamil communities exist in at least 28 countries, likewise the Kurds 46 times (because of both country and language differences).

4 Refugees and temporarily resident communities are often listed but not always included in national percentages.

Language/Literacy. The highest publicized figure for literacy is given. Functional literacy may be much lower and an estimate is sometimes given.

Official languages. Those languages known to be recognized as such in June 2000.

All languages. This represents the total of all indigenous languages spoken within each nation. The figure is quoted from the 1998 Ethnologue (SIL) unless fuller information was available elsewhere.

Languages with Scriptures. The number of languages in which there is a full Bible (Bi), or only a New Testament (NT), or just portions (por) is given. The number of active language translation projects is indicated by w.i.p. (work in progress). Further information on translation needs is given in the points for prayer.

1 HDI — Human Development Index. This is a composite of data about life expectancy, infant mortality, income and health and is measured on a scale from 0.20 to 0.98. We have figures for 174 countries taken from the annual UN Human Development Report, where each country is ranked according to this total.

2 Public debt/person represents the total public debt and is given as a percentage of the GNP. This gives a rough guide to the health of the economy – a high percentage of over 100% is most unhealthy.

3 Income/person is the gross national product (GNP) in US dollars divided by the population. This is also given as a percentage of the USA figure. This gives a rough indication of living standards, but is not an indication of purchasing power within the country which reduces the disparities.

The brief comments are intended to be aids to prayer and not a full political assessment. It is hopefully not too biased by the authors’ own viewpoint.

1 After the comments about the levels of religious freedom, we have sometimes included a Persecution Index ranking. This ranking is derived by Open Doors and published four times a year. There were 74 countries listed with significant levels of persecution. We have given the ranking of such countries as of March 2000. See the Persecution Index for the more recent July 2001 listing.

2 Religions are listed in order of their percentage of the national population and the absolute number. We did not round the latter figure, but this does NOT indicate such a level of accuracy in counting! The growth rate given is for the period 1995-2000.

1 Six ecclesiological megablocs of Christians have been used:

Use of computer databases to derive the denominational tables and ease of layout and reading made it preferable to list them in the order given above irrespective of size. See Definitions for explanation on why we have used a broad definition of Christian, for instance, even including Mormons as “Christian”.

2 The percentage of Christians represents the total number of the population who are claimed to be Christian, either by individuals themselves in a government census, or by the churches to which they are affiliated. Whichever is the larger percentage is the figure used.

3 Where the official or estimated percentage is higher than that claimed by the churches, an unaffiliated percentage and total is added under the six megabloc statistics to reconcile the two.

4 Double affiliation can seriously distort totals. Where this is known to be a factor, a subtraction total is also appended to the megabloc table to allow for those who have changed religion or denomination but are counted by both. This subtraction total is also appended to the list of denominations that follows the megabloc table.

5 Church attendance is emphasized by those who promote saturation church planting (the DAWN movement) as a more objective way of measuring growth and commitment. At first we sought to include these figures throughout, but the inconsistency of results and the paucity of countries with such figures forced us to abandon this as a consistent practice. Any such figures are entered into the database which is on the CD version of the book.

6 Growth rates are given and represent average annual growth between 1995 and 2000.

7 The denominational listings contain a representative selection of the larger denominations with:

a) The number of Congregations (with widely differing denominational differences in what constitutes a congregation).

b) Adult baptized/confirmed Members (the figure usually used by Baptists, Pentecostals and Free Churches).

c) Affiliates represents the whole Christian community or inclusive membership, which includes children, non-member adherents, etc. This is the figure usually used by Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and many Reformed Churches.

We have sought to cross-calculate a derivation for all three figures when only one or two are provided so that meaningful comparisons and totals can be made. We have also had to make projections to 2000 for denominations where recent statistics were not available. See all details in the CD version of Operation World.

1 Evangelical percentages for 1960-2000 are carefully derived according to the methodology described in in the CD version of Operation World. The degree of accuracy is reduced and assessment more subjective in lands where there are large state or traditional churches to which a majority of the population belongs (e.g. Scandinavia). The denominational tables on the CD give the assigned estimates.

2 Charismatic percentages for 1990-2000 are derived as described in Definitions. We have not been able to estimate adequately the denominational breakdown of charismatics before 1990.

3 Pentecostals are defined by denominational type and are exclusively within the Protestant and Independent megablocs. All Pentecostals are, by definition, both Charismatic and Evangelical, and therefore a sub-set of both. This is indicated by the indentation in the table.

4 The inter-relatedness of these three trans-bloc groupings is complex, but has to be faced, because it represents the real world in which we live today. See the Christian Megablocs diagram. Evangelicals and Charismatics are found in at least five of the six megablocs, but in varying proportions. Not all Evangelicals are Charismatic nor are Charismatics necessarily Evangelical.

These have been compiled after considerable effort to scour the world, so included here is a fairly comprehensive totalling of the global missionary force. Each country has a total for missionaries received and sent as well as the number of agencies involved. We have sought to overcome widely differing definitions of what constitutes a missionary so that like can be compared with like. This is how we have sought to do this:

1 All missionaries serving in other lands whether cross-cultural or working among expatriate communities. This is the commonly used definition in North America.

2 All missionaries serving cross-culturally, whether at home or abroad. This is a more commonly used European and Latin American definition.

3 All with an apostolic (missionary) calling to evangelize and plant churches in the same or a related culture. This is generally used in Africa and Asia.

This enables us to give more objective figures for the world's missionary numbers and compare the growing non-Western missions movement with the older Western movements.

These tell a fascinating story of growth and decline in the world's religions and also in Trans-bloc groupings, such as Evangelicals. Some have asked for explanations of the changes. Space unfortunately prohibits this!

The purpose of the graph is to show the growth of the missionary religions over the 20^th century and extrapolation to 2010.

Non-Christian religions and ideologies are shown from the top downwards.

Major Christian traditions are shown from the bottom upwards. Where the number of Christians is very small, only the total Christian population is indicated with ‘X’. Sometimes a combination of the smaller are represented by ‘X’ alongside individual megablocs.

The non-Christian religions which are too small in percentage to be of significance are left as white space at the very top of the chart. Please refer to the accompanying statistics for that country to identify them.

The letter on the graph will help identify the religion without referring constantly to this key. It is usually the first letter of the religion listed under the Religion statistics section. Only the more significant religions are shaded and labelled. See the sample graph below:

The growth of affiliated Evangelicals is always given (not members, so as to compare percentages with other religions). Usually, the estimated growth of Charismatics from 1990-2000 is given.

Likewise, the growth of Pentecostals (who are by definition both Evangelical and Charismatic) is also given when their numbers warrant.

Occasionally another growing group is given for comparison — this will almost always be either the Marginal or Independent megabloc.

The time scale is different from the Religions graph and only covers 1960-2000, the period of the most dramatic change in history for these Trans-bloc groups.

The percentage of the population indicated varies according to countries. Note carefully the scale on the right-hand side before making comparisons. See sample graph below: