The Bible Access Initiative, a collaboration of several ministries, has found that more than 500 million Christians live in nations where access to God’s Word is restricted.

Additionally, the research team discovered that more than 125 million believers live in places where they cannot access Scripture in any format.

The research team identified persecution, poverty, illiteracy, political restrictions, and lack of internet access as some of the main barriers to Bible access for multitudes of Christians.

The research team developed two lists from its research:

• Bible Restrictions List — These are the nations with the most restricted access to the Bible. The Top 10 most restricted nations for the Bible are Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea, Eritrea, Mauritania, Turkmenistan, Libya, Sudan, and Iran.
• Bible Shortages List — These 10 nations face the greatest shortages of God’s Word: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Nigeria, India, Uganda, Tanzania, China, Indonesia, Angola, and Mozambique.

“Please continue to pray for, and support initiatives and projects that increase the supply and availability of God’s precious Word for believers around the world,” an International Christian Concern (ICC) staffer said.

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