Statistics and Facts from the Joshua Project

Posted September 18, 2004
The Joshua Project
joshuaproject.net

Here are some facts from the website of the most aggressive evangelical movement, the Joshua Project, which is trying to convert the whole world to Christianity and build a church in every zip-code in co-operation with the CIA.

• Of the world's 16,158 ethnic people groups by country, 5,931 (37%) are primarily Christian, totaling over 2,000,000,000, or nearly one third the world's population.

• 9,237 people groups by country are NOT Least-Reached, totaling 3,777,203,000 individuals, or about 60% of the world's population.

• 1,640 of the Least-Reached groups are NOT in the 10/40 Window, totaling 369,111,000 individuals. These groups are relatively accessible to the Good News of the Gospel.

• Of the 6,921 Least-Reached people groups, about 3,725 (54%) are small groups under 10,000 in population (or population unknown) and all these groups total less than 20,000,000 individuals. Of the remaining 3,196 least-reached groups, about 1,391 are under 50,000 in population. That leaves 1,805 Least-Reached groups 50,000 and over in population. A vibrant church in a large group may take the gospel to a number of smaller satellite people groups that have ethnic similarities.

• Of the world's 6,469 living languages (Ethnologue total), 3,805 have either/all Bible portions, the Jesus film, gospel radio, or gospel recordings. Total speakers of these languages is 6,100,000,000, or over 95% of the world's population.

• Of 234 total countries, 167 (71%) are Christian-majority countries. Total population for these countries is 2,320,000,000.

• There are 10,311 ethnic people groups identified in the Joshua Project database, and 16,158 people-in-country groups, counting each group once per country of residence.

• There are 7,717 people groups (of the 16,158) with fewer than 10,000 individuals, in addition there are 979 for which no population has been reported (but the population is probably small). For all these small groups, the total number of individuals is less than 20,000,000 meaning that 54% of the 16,158 people groups contain only a tiny fraction of the world's population.

• Of the 16,158 total groups, Joshua Project has identified 6,921 as Least-Reached, totaling 2,541,297,000 individuals. Of these 6,921 groups, 5,281 are in 10/40 Window countries. That means 76% of the unreached / least-reached people groups are in the 10/40 Window.

• The largest least-reached group is the Japanese, with over 120,000,000 individuals.

• 3,195 groups are primarily Muslim, totaling nearly 1,300,000,000 individuals.

• 2,441 groups are primarily Hindu, totaling about 900,000,000 individuals.

• 511 groups are primarily Buddhist, totaling nearly 375,000,000 individuals.

• 5,931 groups are primarily Christian, totaling over 2,000,000,000 individuals. "Christian" is defined here as Christian adherents, not restricted to evangelicals.

• The Mandarin Chinese is the largest people group, being in 98 countries with a total of about 793,000,000 individuals, and with 783,000,000 of those in China.

• Jews are found in 130 countries, Arabs in 84 countries, and Chinese groups in 117 countries.

• India has the largest number of ethnic people groups, 2,329 in the Joshua Project database. (The number of people groups in India varies greatly depending on the researcher and how the term "people group" is defined. Strictly linguistically there are about 330 - 350 "people groups" in India. Some suggest the 2,329 groups in the Joshua Project list should be sub-divided into groups by Indian state, producing a total of about 4,700). For further information, see the ethno-linguistic vs. ethnic discussion on the definitions page.

• Papua New Guinea is the runner-up in number of people groups, at 881. Interestingly, the largest group of these 881 is only 270,000 in population. The total population of the country is only 5,700,000, yet there are nearly 900 people groups. Indonesia (782) and Nigeria (556) follow Papua New Guinea.

• On the other end of the spectrum, South Korea only has seven people groups, with a country population of 47,700,000.

• There are 1,059 languages/dialects spoken in Papua New Guinea. There are only 47 languages/dialects spoken in Japan, which has a population over 25 times as large as Papua New Guinea. The diversity of Papua New Guinea and the homogeneity of Japan!

• In India, one people group (the Gond) speaks 78 languages. 1,402 groups (out of the total of 2,329) speak more than one language.

• One people group in India (Nai), has 70 alternate names. 4,000 of the over 16,000 total peoples-by-country have more than one alternate people name.

• Of the 16,158 people groups in the Joshua Project database, 13% speak more than one language ignoring dialects, and 24% if dialects are included.

• 66 countries have GDP per capita less than $1,000.

• There are 51 Muslim majority countries, of which 23 have GDP per capita less than $1,000 (710,000,000 individuals). This includes oil revenues. None of the Muslim countries are identified as Developed by the World Bank.

• There are four Hindu majority countries, of which three (India-$459, Nepal-$239, Guyana-$936) have GDP per capita less than $1,000 (1,100,000,000 individuals). None of the Hindu countries are identified as Developed.

• There are 167 Christian majority countries, of which 33 have GDP per capita less than $1,000 and 129 exceed $999. 32 Christian majority countries are identified as Developed by the World Bank.

• There are about 6,800 living languages in the world, as identified by the Ethnologue. 4,216 are without Scripture portions available, with some 450,000,000 speakers.

• There are 825 languages with the Jesus film available, 301 with Gospel radio available, and 3,471 with Gospel recordings available (plus approximately 2000 language recordings that have not had Ethnologue codes assigned yet). 2,664 languages have none of these resources available, with about 195,000,000 speakers.