For the first time ever more digital copies of Scripture were shared than print versions, the United Bible Societies Fellowship (UBS) has said.
In its Scripture Distribution Statistics report for 2024, UBS said that the number of printed Bibles distributed across the world fell from 24.2 million in 2023 to 22.5 million last year. However, the number of online Bibles distributed was 25.9 million, surpassing physical copies for the first time.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the countries with the largest populations that received the most physical copies of the Bible. Brazil topped the charts with 4.2 million, followed by India at 1.8 million and China with 1.6 million, Evangelical Focus reports.
Around half of the printed Bibles were in just three languages, with Spanish being the most common at 4.5 million, 4 million in Portuguese and 3.2 million in English.
With the growing importance of the digital market for the Bible, the UBS report now also includes additional details about online interactions with Scripture.
2024 saw 28.3 billion chapter views on Bible apps and 1.3 billion audio views. The report noted that demand for Bible apps was growing due to the growing preference for digital communication methods.
Dirk Gevers, General Secretary of the UBS, said, “Every Bible distributed, regardless of format, enables an important connection between God's living Word and a person who longs for truth, comfort or change.”
He added, “it remains our task to faithfully administer the Holy Scriptures so that all people can have access to the Word of God in their own language and in their preferred format”.
The UBS also detailed its own contribution to the spread of God’s word. The group has printed 2.6 billion Scriptures over the last decade, including 276.9 million Bibles, 102.3 million copies of the New Testament, and 2.2 billion Scripture portions and selections.
