500 million face Bible access restrictions
The Bible Access Initiative report reviewed 106 countries: 125 million want a Bible and don't have one.
More than 500 million Christians face restrictions on access to the Bible, according to the 2026 report from the Bible Access Initiative shared by The Christian Post. The document reviewed 106 countries.
The study also details who is missing the book. Nearly 125 million people want a Bible and don't have one. This edition reviews 19 more countries than the first list, published last year.
The four countries with more than ten million missing Bibles
The largest deficit doesn't always match the harshest persecution. Four nations exceed 10 million missing Bibles: Ethiopia, Nigeria, India and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
«Having the text nearby is useless if reading it costs your freedom or your life»
In a second group, Uganda, Tanzania and China fall between 5 and 10 million. Indonesia, Angola and Mozambique complete the top ten. Malawi, Rwanda, Madagascar and Kenya have shortages of 3 to 5 million, and Haiti, Cuba and Ghana, of 1 to 3 million.
Further down, South Sudan, Chad, Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt and the Central African Republic fall between 500,000 and one million.
Hostile laws, poverty and distance
For legal restrictions there is another order. Afghanistan leads, followed by Yemen, Somalia, North Korea, Eritrea and Mauritania; all six appear under what the report calls "maximum restrictions."
Turkmenistan, Libya, Sudan and Iran close out the ten most closed countries. Along with Comoros and the Maldives they form the group of "extreme restrictions."
The report divides barriers into two. One is persecution: government controls, extremist violence, pressure from family and community. The other is material: poverty, lack of electricity, precarious infrastructure, illiteracy and scarce or unsafe internet connection.
Latin America also appears. Cuba is among the countries with severe restrictions; Venezuela, among those with considerable restrictions; and Mexico, along with Colombia and Nicaragua, in the group with some restrictions.
Availability and access are not the same
Wybo Nicolai, co-creator of the list, said in a statement: "We often hear that the Bible is more accessible than ever, but we must not confuse availability with access."
His words point to something simple: having the text nearby is useless if reading it costs your freedom or your life, or if there is no light, no signal or no one to teach you to read it.
Ken Bitgood, founder of Digital Bible Society and also co-creator, described it as more than an X-ray of the problem: a map to know where determined action is needed. The initiative explains that its goal is to give Bible agencies, missionaries and churches a reliable vision to plan better.
The list comes from an alliance of five Bible and missionary organizations; among them are YouVersion and The Voice of the Martyrs.
For someone who opens the Bible on their phone without thinking twice, the contrast is uncomfortable: "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12, ESV).
You can do something without leaving home. Choose one of the four countries with the greatest shortage —Ethiopia, Nigeria, India or the Democratic Republic of the Congo— and pray for it every day this week; if you can, add your time or a donation to a ministry that distributes Scriptures. Who will you pray for?
