Key Statistics on Generous Giving

It has been said that God’s people possess God’s provision to accomplish and fulfill God’s purposes in the world. Indeed, according to Christian financial advisor Ron Blue, “Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission.” Think about this statement as you consider the following statistics:

The World’s Great Spiritual and Material Poverty

  • Unevangelized: In 2007, 1.9 billion people worldwide (28% of the population) had yet to hear the message of the gospel.8
  • Lost: Two-thirds of people alive today do not know the Savior of mankind. This includes 1.35 billion Muslims, 888 million Hindus, 388 million Chinese folk-religionists, 386 million Buddhists, 262 million ethnoreligionists, 106 million New-Religionists, 26 million Sikhs, 15 million Jews, and 154 million atheists.25
  • Poverty: More than 1 billion people live in absolute poverty. This includes 700 million people living in slums, 500 million people on the verge of starvation, 93 million beggars, and 200 million children exploited for labor.16
  • Minimal Wages: 1.2 billion of the world’s poorest populations must survive on $1 a day.14
  • Unchurched: The population of un-churched Americans is nearing 100 million.15
  • Church Attendance: 20 percent of Americans attend weekly religious services. 25.4 percent of conservative Protestants attend a weekly service.12

The Church’s Unprecedented Growth

  • Explosive Growth: The church has grown more in the 20th century than in all the previous 19 centuries since the time of Christ combined, with almost 2 billion adherents worldwide.13
  • Daily Evangelism: Every day 166,000 people hear the good news of Jesus Christ for the first time.2
  • Professions of Faith: Every year, 27 million people profess faith in Christ as Savior for the first time.2
  • Projected Growth: The percentage of the world population which may be identified as Christian is expected to increase by 475 million people between 2007 and 2025.8
  • Asia and Africa: The church is growing exponentially in China, India and Africa. The current ranks of 81 million believers in China are expected to swell to 135 million by 2025. The 50 million faithful in India could mushroom to 125 million by 2050. And today’s census of 90 million Christians in Africa is likely to explode to 1 billion in 2050.4
  • United States: Evangelical Christians comprise between 8 percent5 and 35 percent17 of the U.S. population, or between 18 million and 100 million people. Researchers do not agree on the actual number.

The Church’s Great Storehouse of Wealth

  • U.S. Evangelical Assets: Between $1.54 trillion and $6.72 trillion in assets are in the hands of American evangelicals, not including the value of their primary homes. Researchers do not agree on an exact dollar amount.1
  • U.S. Evangelical Income: In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income.18
  • Worldwide Income: Worldwide, Great Commission Christians have personal income totaling $6.8 trillion a year.3
  • Transfer of Wealth: Over the next 50 years, between $41 trillion and $136 trillion will pass from older Americans to younger generations, suggesting that roughly $1 trillion to $3 trillion in wealth will change hands every year.7

The Church’s Squandering of Resources

  • Decline in Giving: Church members gave $2.8 million less to their churches in 2004 than in 2003.11
  • Then and Now: Giving by North American churchgoers was higher during the Great Depression (3.3 percent of per capita income in 1933) than it was after a half-century of unprecedented prosperity (2.5 percent in 2004).21
  • Debt: Thirty-three percent of U.S. born-again Christians say it is impossible for them to get ahead in life because of the financial debt they have incurred.9
  • Sunday Offerings: The average amount of money given by a full or confirmed member of a U.S. Christian church in 2004 was $691.93. This comes to an average of $13.31 per week.22

Faith and Generosity Are Linked

  • Evangelicals More Generous: American evangelicals gave four times as much, per person, to churches as did all other church donors in 2001. Eighty-eight percent of evangelicals and 73 percent of all Protestants donated to churches.11
  • Conservatives More Generous: Conservative congregations report higher levels of per-member giving than their mainline or liberal counterparts ($2,627 in annual gifts versus $1,582).19
  • Giving to Churches: Among evangelicals, almost 90 cents of every donated dollar goes to their churches. The proportion drops, however, as people’s spiritual intensity and commitment to Christ decline.10
  • Tithing: 9% of American “born-again” adults tithed in 2004. This means that the vast majority of God’s people are not financially supporting his work23
  • Disaster Relief: The total amount of money given to religious organizations increased by 5.9% in 2005. It is likely that giving increased during this time because of the efforts of the church to raise money after the Asian tsunami, the GulfCoast hurricanes, and the Pakistani earthquake.24

The Potential for Funding the Harvest

  • Already Enough Wealth: Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission.6
  • Even a Little More Giving: There would have been an additional $164 billion available for the work of the church in 2004 had American church members given at least 10 percent of their incomes, instead of the 2.5 percent that was actually given.20

1 This information is extrapolated from three sources: Social Investment Forum, 2003 Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States (Washington: Author, 2003), 4; George Barna, Survey Explores Who Qualifies As an Evangelical, The Barna Update, January 18, 2007; Larry Eskridge, Defining Evangelicalism (Wheaton, Ill.: Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, n.d.).
2 David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, “Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: 2007,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Volume 31, No. 1, 8. 2007.
3 David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends AD 30-AD 2000: Interpreting the Annual Christian Megacensus (Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 2001), 659.
4 Barrett and Johnson, World Christian Trends, 405ff.
5 George Barna, Survey Explores Who Qualifies As an Evangelical, The Barna Update, January 18, 2007.
6 Ron Blue with Jodie Berndt, Generous Living: Finding Contentment through Giving (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 201.
7 John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish, Why the $41 Trillion Wealth Transfer Estimate Is Still Valid: A Review of Challenges and Questions, The Journal of Gift Planning 7, no. 1 (January 2003), 11-15, 47-50.
8 David B. Barrett & Todd M. Johnson, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, January 2007.
9 George Barna, Barna Research Archives: Money (Barna Research Group).
10 George Barna, quoted in Survey Finds Americans More Generous Last Year, press release by World Vision, July 22, 2002.
11 John Ronsvalle and Sylvia Ronsvalle, The State of Church Giving through 2004: Will We Will? 16th ed. (Champaign, Ill.: Empty Tomb, 2006),12.
12 Giving USA Foundation, Giving USA: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2005, researched and written at the Center on Philanthropy at IndianaUniversity, 51st annual issue (Indianapolis: Author, 2006), 112.
13 Barrett and Johnson, World Christian Trends, 19 and 551.
14 Sider, Ronald. The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. Books and Culture. January 1, 2005.
15 Unchurched Population Nears 100 Million in the US March 19, 2007,
16 Barrett and Johnson, World Christian Trends, 34.
17 Larry Eskridge, Defining Evangelicalism (Wheaton, Ill.: Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, n.d.).
18 Barrett and Johnson, World Christian Trends, 657.
19 Giving USA Foundation, 119.
20 Ronsvalle, 53.
21 Ronsvalle, 36.
22 Ronsvalle, 17.
23 April 25, 2005 “Americans Donate Billions to Charity, But Giving to Churches Has Declined,” The Barna Group, Ltd. California. April 25, 2005.
24 Giving USA Foundation, 107.
25 David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, Status of Global Mission, 2007 (International Bulletin of Missionary Research 31, no. 1), 8.