How large are the language groups you are working with?

I used to think that a language spoken by a tribal group meant, say, a few hundred people in a handful of villages. And you might assume that so much translation work has been completed that tiny language groups like this are all that are left. Well, let's have a look at what the figures are actually saying...

Africa contains about 30% of all the world's languages, around 1800 different languages. The most recent figures I have seen say that only about 170 of those languages have a complete Bible translation - less than one-tenth of the languages in Africa. Now, it is true that this one-tenth includes some very major languages in Africa, such as Swahili. But it is not true that only tiny language groups are remaining, or that the need is not still very great. There are still many quite major language groups that are in need of a Bible translation.

Although getting an accurate census of the population for each group can be difficult, the following statistics may give you an idea. These figures are just for the language groups that we are working with on the continent of Africa:

• The smallest African language groups we are currently working with have about 30,000 speakers.
• The largest African language group that we are working with is estimated to have at least 2-3 million speakers, and some say as high as 6 million. Three others of our language groups also have estimated populations that reach as high as 7 digits.
  
• Using the most conservative figures, the average size of the African language groups we are working with is over 450,000 speakers.
• Again, using the most conservative figures, our current translation projects in Africa will provide Bibles for a total of over 7.2 million people (using the highest figures would bring the total number as high as 14 million people).

Our motto at Bibles International is "Millions Still Wait", and as you can see, it is still a very accurate statement!