More people live in this circle than outside it.
August 10, 2016
By Matt Morrison
Content Editor
There are over seven billion living, breathing souls on the planet today and that number continues to climb at an unprecedented rate. But that population growth isn’t equally distributed across the globe. Instead, humanity’s growth in highlight concentrated in one specific region.
Over 51% of the world lives within the highlighted circle above. That means that more people live inside this portion of Asia than those who live outside of it. China alone is home to 1.3 billion people. India adds another 1.2 billion. And that’s to say nothing of the seventeen other states. To put it in perspective, the United States has only 300 million citizens.
This trend is nothing new. Asia has always held a high concentration of the world’s population. But the trend is definitely growing. According to the United Nations, Asia’s cities alone will be home to over 3 billion people by 2050.
A BLACK HOLE
These statistics are both interesting and notably tragic. While Asia’s city lights shine bright in the night sky, this region that over half of the world calls home is a spiritual black hole. Many of its inhabitants are part of unreached people groups, cultures with little or no access to the Gospel message. This means few, if any, churches. It often means no Bibles and no missionaries. In many cases, it even means no one is even trying to reach them.
In China, 82% of the people groups carry this label, impacting over 184 million people. In India, that number jumps to 90%, a figure that includes over 1.2 billion souls. Add another 8.5 million in Vietnam, 15 million in Cambodia, and 67 million in Thailand.
The point is this: the most highly populated region of the world is largely untouched by the Gospel. Over 51% of people live in this beautiful place that has little access to the truth that they were made in the image of God, saved by the sacrifice of his son, and offered freedom by his grace.
Just imagine what could happen if the Church focused its efforts on changing those statistics and turning the bright spot on that map into a spiritual bright spot as well.
It’s doable. Why not be a part of it?
Visit www.e3partners.org/missions to learn more.
