Bible distribution

Gideons in the British Isles

•  Nearly 200 members took part in the London Scripture Blitz in September 2011 and distributed nearly 60,000 Scriptures.

• During this initiative 12,000 Bibles were requested by and distributed to a single organisation responsible for arranging accommodation for students.

• Other placements in 2011 have included 34 Bibles placed in fire stations across Staffordshire and 140 Testaments placed at the Frontier Centre, near Wellingborough, part of the Rock UK Adventure Centres.
• Gideons in the British Isles was established in 1949 and they have given away 30 million Bibles.
  
• There are currently 5000 Gideons working in Britain.

The Gideons website has testimonies of the impact the Bible has had on people's lives: gideons.org.uk

International Gideons

• There are 250,000 Gideons  plus Auxiliary members,  working in  some  194 countries  in more than 10,000 local groups worldwide.
  

• Up to  80 million Scriptures are  distributed annually by the various national groups.
• The organisation exceeded its Scripture distribution goal of  78 million Scriptures in 2010-11, placing 78,992,812 copies during the year.
  
• On average, more than two copies of God's Word are distributed per second.
  

Bible Society

• Distributes more than 25 million Bibles each year.  Since 2006 Bible distribution has risen by around 5% each year.

• In one recent year 400 million Scripture publications were handed out, the equivalent of one for every person living in South America.

• In one recent year 28 million New Reader portions of the Bible were handed out as part of  literacy programmes.

• 50 million Bibles have been distributed to Christians in China.   

• More than 250,000 gospels were distributed to young people at a  global Catholic conference in Australia during  2008.

• 50,000 gospels, 10,000 Chinese Bibles, and 30,000 Chinese/English New Testaments were given out at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.  

Biblica

• In the year 2008-2009  Biblica provided 29.23 million Scriptures which included 11.7 million complete Bibles plus New Testaments and Scripture portions.

• More than 400 million copies of the New International Version have been distributed worldwide by Biblica and its publishing partners.

• More than 380 scholars and translators around the world are currently working on Biblica’s translation projects.

Impact of the Bible on individuals' conversion and faith

Faith Journeys Christian Research 2009/10 This online computer assisted study asked, "Thinking about your adult life, how did the following influence you being a Christian, if at all?"

The Bible is rated as an encouraging factor by 87%. Therefore, it is ranked 2nd behind Church (90%), but above Praying (3rd), then Reading Christian Literature - other than the Bible (4th), both 82%.


Bible and Society

• In July 2010 Christian Research carried out 1,013 interviews with members of the general public in some 44 locations in England and Wales – see www.christian-research.org/the-bible/bible-and-society.html

•  40% agreed that the Bible was a good influence on society.

• 34% agreed that we would be a better society if more people engaged with the Bible.

• For most people the Bible likely to be found in their homes is the King James Bible – though many people said that they would prefer to read the Good News Bible.

• Most people had received their Bibles ‘passively’ as a gift rather than as  something  they had chosen to buy for themselves.