SWINDON, England, May 23, 2018 — More than 20% of all Bibles distributed by the United Bible Societies (UBS) fellowship in 2017 were downloaded from the internet. It’s the first time Scripture downloads have been recorded separately by Bible Societies – and it shows that online distribution is increasingly significant. While overall Scripture distribution fell by 12% globally, the number of full Bibles made available around the world topped 34 million for the third year running. Of these, more than 7.9 million Bibles were downloaded, primarily on apps such as YouVersion. In total, more than 107 million full Bibles have been distributed by the UBS fellowship since 2015. Nearly 355 million Scripture items, including Bibles, Testaments, Gospels and smaller Scripture items like booklets for people learning to read, were distributed (or downloaded) in 2017.
UBS continues to be largest translator and distributor of Scripture on the planet; around 70% of the world’s full Bible translations have been provided by Bible Societies.
All Scriptures: 354,948,660
Full Bibles: 38,609,344 (including 7.9 million downloads)
Testaments: 11,595,614
The full Bible was downloaded more than 7.9 million times in 2017 as unique downloads – but this is a conservative figure and it’s likely the real number of downloads was much higher. Around 90 Bible Societies are now making their Scripture translations available online, using hundreds of different websites, such as bibles.org, and apps such as YouVersion. In addition, more than three-quarters of Bible Societies have received training in how to make the Bible available digitally.
To read the entire report with graphics, photos and more stories from the field please click here.
Within this report, internet downloads refer to unique downloads, rather than total downloads. The figures for total downloads would be significantly higher. All internet download figures are currently significantly under-reported as we move towards full and comparable global data capture.
About the United Bible Societies:
The United Bible Societies is a global network of Bible Societies working in more than 200 countries and territories across the world. Together, United Bible Societies members are the world’s biggest translator, publisher and distributor of the Bible. Bible Societies are also active in areas such as HIV/AIDS prevention, trauma healing and literacy. United Bible Societies works with all Christian Churches and many international non-governmental organisations. Read more: www.unitedbiblesocieties.org.
Contact: Gunnar Mägi, Marketing and Brand Manager, Global Mission Team: Partnerships & Communications, United Bible Societies, +372-503-4980, gmagi@biblesocieties.org; Skype: gunnjill
