A Statistical Analysis of the Relationship Between Persecution and Recent Growth of the Christian Church (2015-2018)
Persecution of Christians is on the increase throughout the world today. Nevertheless, even in those countries in which some of the most severe persecution is taking place, a slow growth in numbers of Christians is actually being recorded. Statistical analysis of available data from the Open Doors World Watch List (WWL) and the World Christian Database (WCD) has revealed some interesting results. Where one might have expected a negative influence of persecution on church growth, we found no statistically significant relationship between any change in the level of overall persecution and church growth. Even more striking, what we did find was a significant correlation between increasing levels of violent persecution and positive church growth over the recent three-year period (2015-2018).
The statistical analysis
The Christian article
Extra: Coat Rack ‘spiritual growth’
A booklet for house groups, with questions for discussion, see menu
Infographic
What happens in these countries?
In our analysis we see that 39 countries (81%) experience increase over 3 years in general Total Persecution. The increase of Violent Persecution is in 28 countries (58%).
To get more insight about the countries in our analysis, we look at the Figure 1. We see right in this figure the countries who have an increase in violent persecution over the 3 years period (28 countries). Left we see the countries with a decrease in violent persecution. In the top we see the countries with an increase in church growth. Below we see the countries with decrease in church growth.
We can split all our countries in four quadrants. For example: in the right – top we have 10 (21%) countries with more violence but still with a growing church: the surviving church. The right – low are the 18 (38%) countries with more violence and decrease in numbers of Christians.
So we can make a list or overview of all the present 48 countries with most violent persecution distributed over the four corners of Figure.
Right – Top: more violence, more church growth, n=10 (21%)
Algeria Brunei China Eritrea Ethiopia India
Indonesia Kuwait Mali Malaysia
Right – Below: more violence, negative church growth, n=18 (38%)
Afghanistan Azerbaijan Bangladesh Central African Republic Colombia
Jordan Kazakhstan Laos Libya North Korea Oman
Pakistan Somalia Tajikistan Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Yemen
Left – Below: less violence, less church growth, n=9 (19%)
Djibouti Egypt Iraq Maldives Mexico Qatar
Sudan Syria Uzbekistan
Left – Top; less violence, more church growth, n=6 (13%)
Comoros Kenya Myanmar Nigeria Sri Lanka Tanzania
no change in violence, more church growth
Iran United Arab Emirates
no change in violence, less church growth
Bhutan Mauritania Saudi Arabia