9th June, 2004
WOLFGANG POLZER
ASSIST News Service

Scripture distribution worldwide has dropped significantly. Figures released by the United Bible Societies (UBS) in Reading, England, show nearly 432 million Bibles, New Testaments, Scripture portions and selections were distributed in 2003 - down 25 per cent compared with the previous year (578 million).

As a UBS-spokesperson explained to the German evangelical news agency idea, the drop has mainly formal reasons. The accounting year in 2002 had 14, not 12 months, and especially the number of Bible selections – i.e. tracts, calendars, bookmarks etc. – varies significantly.

The UBS fellowship has 137 Bible Societies or Offices in more than 200 countries and territories. According to the latest figures the number of Bibles (Old and New Testament) distributed dropped from 24.9 million in 2002 to 21.4 million in 2003.

The distribution of New Testaments went down from 22.5 million to 14.4 million. The number of distributed Scripture selections dropped by 26 per cent to 337,7 million. Only New Reader Scripture portions (in simple language) went up by 2.3 per cent to 13.2 million, while New Reader Selections dropped by 27.2 per cent to 29.6 million.

Bible Societies in the Americas led the distribution statistics with 300 million pieces of Scriptures. In Asia and the Pacific 105 million Scriptures were handed out, in Africa 14 million and in Europe and the Middle East 11 million.

Growth was recorded in a few areas, for example in China. The Amity printing press in Nanjing produced 2.8 million Bibles for Christians in China, Laos and Vietnam – approximately one million more than in 2002. Scripture distribution was also up in Nigeria with 830,000 Bibles and 44,000 New Testaments.

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