According to statistician David Barrett (USA), the
world population grew to 5.804 billion in 1996; 1.843 billion
of those are under 15 years old. There are 1.715 billion poor
people living in cities, with an additional 970 million living
in slums. The church continues to grow rapidly: of the 1.782 billion
church members, 1.302 billion are "practising Christians",
numbers which have grown from 1.159 billion and 905 million in
1970.

According to Barrett, the number of missionary Christians
(Great Commission Christians) has grown from 300 million in 1970
to 786 million in 1996.

Charismatic and Pentecostal churches have by far
the greatest rate of growth: in 1900, they had 3.7 million members;
in 1970, 74.4 million; today, the number 479.8 million. The number
of Christian service groups has grown from 14,100 in 1970 to 23,200
in 1996; the number of mission agencies has grown from 2,200 to
4,500. Churches have a total income of $94 billion per year, and
mission agencies and independent organisations $100 billion.

Source: David B. Barrett, GEM Research, Status of
Global Mission 1996