The United Bible Societies distributed 34 million bibles around the world during 2016. North and South America hold this year’s record for distribution of full-length bibles.
According to impressive new figures released by the United Bible Societies, 34 million bibles were distributed across the world during 2016.
In addition, 360 million “biblical products", including copies of the New Testament, the Gospel and other shorter publications such as beginner booklets, were also distributed.
North and South America hold this year’s record for distribution of full-length bibles. Over 15.5 million copies have been circulated in this region alone.
Africa came next with 6.6 million, followed by the Europe-Middle East region where 2.9 million copies were sold.
Brazil heads the top five bible-distributing nations with 6.7 million bibles, far ahead of China (3.5 million), the United States (almost 3 million), Nigeria (1.9 million), and India (1.8 million).
Great potential in digital bibles
A notable evolution with respect to previous years was the doubling of the number of digital bibles distributed.
Three million digital bibles were sold across the world in 2016 in the form of CDs, DVDs or e-books.
Brazilians, in particular, downloaded a United Bible Societies’ bible application launched in August 2015.
In 2016, the application provided access to 1.5 million copies of the bible.
The Bible Society of Iran, founded in 2014, after its offices were closed down in 1990, also distributed one million electronic bibles last year.
Remarkable efforts to distribute the Bible
In their 2016 report, the United Bible Societies also highlight some remarkable efforts to increase bible distribution in certain countries.
In Bangladesh, the number of copies of the New Testament distributed increased eightfold from 2015.
The Palestinian Bible Society also increased circulation of the New Testament by a factor of five.
In Cuba, 350,000 full-length bibles were given out last year under the “One Million Bibles for Cuba” campaign launched in 2013.
In Germany, twice as many Bibles were distributed in 2016 compared to 2015, while in the United States distribution of the New Testament has increased markedly.
The Bible Society of Brazil reached another notable milestone, crossing the 150 million mark for Bibles and copies of the New Testament produced since 1995.
However, the distribution of Bibles in Africa dropped by 32% during the last three years. With nine million biblical products distributed, it has fallen into last place behind the Europe-Middle East group which distributed 9.2 million items.
Nevertheless, Africa remains far ahead of Europe in terms of the distribution of full-length Bibles.
