Was It Worth It?

• 
• 
• 
• 

The numbers are gleaned from various sources and, in many cases, are simply educated guesses by missiologists. Estimates of the number of Christians today vary widely among experts. We've used the figures of Tony Lambert of OMF (international), which seem to occupy a middle ground.

—The Editors

Western Protestants poured money and people into China for a hundred years. Did it make a significant difference?

Protestant Missionaries

1807: 1

1840: 20

1858: 81

1865: 189

1874: 436

1893: 1,324

1906: 3,833

1918: 6,395

1926: 8,325

1928: 4,375

1930: 6,346

1951: 0

Population of China

1812: 362 million

1851: 380 million

1949: 450 million

1980: 900 million

1990: 1.1 billion

1996: 1.2 billion

Baptized Protestants

1800: 0

1834: 10

1853: 350

1869: 5,753

1876: 13,035

1898: 80,000

1911: 207,747

1934: 500,000

1980: 2 million

1996: 33 million

(government estimate: 19 million)

Protestants per Chinese

1850: 1 in 1 million

1900: 1 in 2,000

1926: 1 in 1,000

1952: 1 in 1,000

1996: 1 in 36

Roman Catholics

1800: —250,000 (compared to 0 Protestants)

1900: (about) 1 million

1950: —3 million—or five times the number of Protestants

1996: —18 million—or about half the number of Protestants

(government estimate: 6 million)

Total Christians (Protestants & Catholics) in China’s population today

4.3 percent or 1 in 23.

Source of Statistics: Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China (1929); Tony Lambert, OMF (INTERNATIONAL); statistics of the People’s Republic of China.

By the Editors

Show more