Percentage Of Believers In World Population

Believers as a Percentage of Total World Population in the 20th Century 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2%

2000

1990

1980

1970

1960

1950

1940

1930

1920

1910

1900

0%

It took 18 centuries for dedicated believers to grow from 0 percent of the world’s population to 2.5 percent in 1900, only 70 years to grow from 2.5 to 5 percent in 1970, and just the last 30 years to grow from 5 to 11.2 percent of the world population. Now, for the first time in history, there is one believer for every nine people worldwide who aren’t Source: Lausanne Statistical Task Force believers.

This material is extracted from the third edition of the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement Reader: Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1999 and the Mission Frontiers June 2000 edition. © 2000 Reprinted with permission.