Church Statistics
By Gerry Straker, 12 Dec 2025
In Autumn 2025 as we studied Acts I referenced a number of different statistics.
The statistics come from several sessions at the FIEC leaders conference Steve Sammons and I went on at the beginning of November. I have also looked at Open Doors' and Wycliffe Bible Translators' websites.
As was made clear at the Conference, statistics need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but they do serve a function in giving a good impression of what’s going on. Meanwhile, the Lord knows each of his sheep: ‘My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me’ (John 10:27) and he ‘examines minds and hearts’ (Revelation 2:23).
1. Persecuted Christians
- 1 in 7 Christians across the world face high levels of persecution and discrimination – that’s 380 million Christians.
- 7,679 churches and Christian properties were attacked in 2024.
- 4,744 Christians were imprisoned for faith related reasons in 2024.
- 4,476 Christians were murdered for their faith in 2024 of which 3,100 were in Nigeria.
- 16.2 million Christians in sub Saharan Africa live in displacement camps. That’s three times the population of Scotland. 70% are Nigerian.
The persecuted Christians are first and foremost praying for their persecutors – not for an end to persecution. They are doing what Jesus commanded (Matthew 5:44). One Nigerian Christian said this: 'We don't want them to die in their sin. In their darkness... they don't know what they are doing.'
The African church has challenged us to take action: they want Christians to raise 1 million prayers and petitions to help the church persevere in the faith. See here.
2. The Worldwide Church
- There are still today 7246 unreached people groups – no Christians from these communities. This is 3.39 billion people and 41.8% of the world’s population.
- 9% of the world have never heard the gospel at all.
- 90% of Muslims and Hindus don’t know a Christian.
'How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”' (Romans 10:14-15).
We asked our children and young people to think about going. The question for our children is not: what do you want to be when you grow up (astronaut, prime minister, singer…)? but how and where will you serve God when you grow up? We asked parents: would you rejoice to send your child to a people that have never heard the gospel? Whatever our children do when they are older we can never promise they will be happy and safe. But if they serve the Lord in some way - even in a very hard way – then it is absolutely always worth it.
3. Bible Translation Work
- Wonderfully, 80% of the world have the full Bible.
- But, of course, that means 20% of the population do not have the full Bible. That is 1.6 billion people.
- There are 7,396 languages in the world.
- 779 languages have a full Bible.
- 1,802 languages have the New Testament.
- 1,433 languages have some portions of the Bible.
- 4,473 languages have work in progress.
- 550 languages still have no Bible and no work in progress.
We asked our children at Church whether they are gifted at languages. Is this a way they could serve?
We thought this was something we could help with right away and so as part of our Christmas giving 2025, we gave a gift to support a particular project in a war-torn country in Africa where new church leaders have no Bible in their language. With other FIEC Churches we're aiming to raise £70,000 pounds which will help unlock the Word of God in 11 languages for 850,000 people. This is a great way to express our unity around the apostles’ teaching…to help churches actually have the apostles’ teaching.
4. The UK Church
We have talked in recent weeks about the ‘quiet revival’:
But the emphasis should definitely be on the word 'quiet'. As an example, the University of Sheffield recently issued trigger warnings for English Literature students studying Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.[1] There is so much work to do here and now in the UK.
- Only 2-3% of the UK population are Bible-believing Christians.
- 1% are Hindus.
- 6.5% are Muslims - about 3.9 million people.
- 50% of people in the UK don’t know a Christian - about 35 million people!
And so we start today, where we are here in Morecambe. This is how to love Jesus. This is how to love people. This is how to make the world a better place. We pray for boldness and opportunities to speak about Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our hearers.
Further information:
- Open Doors’ Arise Africa campaign.
- Open Doors article on the violence in Nigeria.
- John Stevens’ talk Our Mobile World at the FIEC Conference.
- Wycliffe Bible Translators annual report.
[1] https://www.christian.org.uk/news/sheffield-uni-slaps-violent-trigger-warning-on-gospel-accounts/