January 29, 2020, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary
- If 100 Christians represented all of global Christianity, 67 would live in Asia, Africa, Latin America, or Oceania, while 33 would live in Europe or Northern America. Most would be found in urban areas (65) as opposed to rural (35).
- Linguistically, 16 would speak Spanish as their mother tongue, 10 English, 8 Portuguese, 5 Russian and 3 Mandarin Chinese.
- Most (64) would be between the ages of 15 and 64, while 26 would be under 15.
- Eleven Christians would be illiterate, and 35 would have little to no access to secondary education. Roughly half of Christians would have access to the internet. Fourteen would have no access to safe water, and five would have malaria.
- Most Christians (79) would live in countries with moderate to high corruption; 35 would live in countries with low development.
A typical Christian today is a non-white woman living in the global South, with lower-than-average levels of societal safety and proper health care. This represents a vastly different typical Christian than that of 100 years ago, who was likely a white, affluent European.
» Read The World as 100 Christians and study the graphic. It’s inspired by The World as 100 People but uses data from the recently updated World Christian Encyclopedia (see below).
» An article from another source shows that eight in ten evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, or Latin America (Evangelical Focus). See also a visualization of the world’s 100 most-spoken languages.