Sweden | Joshua Project

Country: Sweden

Number of People Groups

People Groups Unreached

22 (25.0%)

Progress Level

The Joshua Project Progress Scale is an estimate of the progress of church planting among a people group, people cluster, country or language. The Progress Scale is derived from people group values for percent Evangelical and percent Christian Adherent.

Level	Description	Criteria
1	Unreached - Few evangelicals and few who identify as Christians. Little, if any, history of Christianity.	Evangelicals <= 2% Professing Christians <= 5%
2	Minimally reached - Few evangelicals, but significant number who identify as Christians.	Evangelicals <= 2% Professing Christians > 5% and <= 50%
3	Superficially reached - Few evangelicals, but many who identify as Christians. In great need of spiritual renewal and commitment to biblical faith.	Evangelicals <= 2% Professing Christians > 50%
4	Partially reached - Evangelicals have a modest presence.	Evangelicals > 2% and <= 10%
5	Significantly reached - Evangelicals have a significant presence.	Evangelicals > 10%

Total
Population

10,149,000

Population in Unreached

394,000 (3.9%)

Largest Religion

Christianity (55.8%)

% Christian Adherent

55.77%

% Evangelical

5.77%

Evangelical Annual Growth Rate

-0.6%

(Global Rate = 2.6%)

Map Notes

Click column headings for sorting ▲▼

Progress Scale: ●●●●●
☀
= Frontier peoples
People Group ▲	Population this Country	Global Population	Indigenous	Primary Language	Primary Religion	Progress Scale	% Christian Adherent	% Evangelical	Est. Workers Needed *
Albanian	5,100	5,419,000		Albanian, Gheg	Islam	1 ●	3.00 %	0.30 %	1
Algerian, Arabic-speaking	2,400	35,265,000		Arabic, Algerian Spoken	Islam	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
Americans, U.S.	16,000	193,448,000		English	Christianity	5 ●	80.00 %	28.90 %	-1 -
Amhara, Ethiopian	10,000	24,655,000		Amharic	Christianity	4 ●	85.00 %	5.00 %	-1 -
Anglo-Australian	3,800	18,356,000		English	Christianity	5 ●	65.00 %	14.00 %	-1 -
Anglo-Canadian	2,800	16,691,000		English	Christianity	4 ●	78.00 %	9.00 %	-1 -
Arab, Egyptian	5,200	70,222,000		Arabic, Egyptian Spoken	Islam	4 ●	12.00 %	3.00 %	-1 -
Arab, Iraqi	94,000	17,695,000		Arabic, Mesopotamian Spoken	Islam	1 ●	1.00 %	0.30 %	2
Arab, Jordanian	3,300	4,459,000		Arabic, South Levantine Spoken	Islam	1 ●	2.00 %	0.30 %	1
Arab, Lebanese	23,000	7,268,000		Arabic, North Levantine Spoken	Islam	2 ●	32.00 %	0.50 %	-1 -
Arab, Libyan	2,100	2,699,000		Arabic, Libyan Spoken	Islam	1 ●	1.50 %	0.30 %	1
Arab, Sudanese	2,200	17,548,000		Arabic, Sudanese Spoken	Islam	1 ●	4.00 %	0.60 %	1
Arab, Syrian	29,000	17,357,000		Arabic, North Levantine Spoken	Islam	2 ●	6.00 %	0.10 %	-1 -
Arab, Tunisian	4,200	11,456,000		Arabic, Tunisian Spoken	Islam	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
Assyrian	52,000	859,000		Assyrian Neo-Aramaic	Christianity	3 ●	80.00 %	1.00 %	-1 -
Austrian, Bavarian	5,200	14,499,000		Bavarian	Christianity	3 ●	83.00 %	0.50 %	-1 -
Azerbaijani	2,200	10,046,000		Azerbaijani, North	Islam	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
Bolivian, Mestizo	3,100	8,038,000		Spanish	Christianity	5 ●	90.00 %	13.00 %	-1 -
Bosniak	32,000	3,183,000		Bosnian	Islam	1 ●	0.30 %	0.04 %	1
Brazilian, general	3,300	220,000		Portuguese	Christianity	5 ●	91.00 %	26.30 %	-1 -
British	29,000	54,300,000		English	Christianity	4 ●	60.00 %	8.80 %	-1 -
Bulgarian	6,800	6,996,000		Bulgarian	Christianity	3 ●	80.00 %	1.90 %	-1 -
Cape Verdean	800	798,000		Kabuverdianu	Christianity	4 ●	95.00 %	6.60 %	-1 -
Chilean	19,000	17,484,000		Spanish	Christianity	5 ●	87.00 %	18.00 %	-1 -
Colombian, Mestizo	6,800	35,323,000		Spanish	Christianity	4 ●	95.00 %	6.00 %	-1 -
Croat	4,600	5,328,000		Croatian	Christianity	3 ●	92.00 %	0.40 %	-1 -
Czech	1,400	10,903,000		Czech	Non-Religious	2 ●	26.00 %	0.80 %	-1 -
Danish	47,000	5,189,000		Danish	Christianity	3 ●	86.00 %	0.70 %	-1 -
Deaf	20,000	48,207,000	●	Swedish Sign Language	Christianity	3 ●	57.20 %	-1	-1 -
Dutch	11,000	13,525,000		Dutch	Non-Religious	4 ●	47.00 %	4.30 %	-1 -
Estonian	6,100	1,131,000		Estonian, Standard	Non-Religious	4 ●	45.00 %	4.90 %	-1 -
Filipino, Tagalog	3,400	38,838,000		Tagalog	Christianity	5 ●	92.00 %	12.30 %	-1 -
Finland Swede	111,000	380,000	●	Swedish	Christianity	4 ●	57.00 %	6.90 %	-1 -
Finnish	94,000	5,677,000		Finnish	Christianity	5 ●	84.00 %	12.10 %	-1 -
Finnish, Tornedalen	33,000	71,000	●	Finnish, Tornedalen	Christianity	5 ●	84.00 %	12.10 %	-1 -
French	9,200	50,718,000		French	Christianity	3 ●	61.00 %	1.00 %	-1 -
German	38,000	66,472,000		German, Standard	Christianity	4 ●	64.00 %	2.10 %	-1 -
German Swiss	2,900	4,877,000		German, Swiss	Christianity	4 ●	76.00 %	4.40 %	-1 -
Greek	12,000	10,266,000		Greek	Christianity	3 ●	91.00 %	0.40 %	-1 -
Han Chinese, Cantonese	21,000	79,910,000		Chinese, Yue	Non-Religious	4 ●	5.00 %	4.00 %	-1 -
Han Chinese, Mandarin	19,000	885,341,000		Chinese, Mandarin	Non-Religious	4 ●	8.00 %	6.00 %	-1 -
Hungarian	11,000	11,717,000		Hungarian	Christianity	4 ●	88.00 %	2.80 %	-1 -
Icelander	5,100	395,000		Icelandic	Christianity	4 ●	91.00 %	3.80 %	-1 -
Irish	3,200	8,324,000		English	Christianity	3 ●	95.00 %	0.80 %	-1 -
Italian	11,000	38,258,000		Italian	Christianity	3 ●	82.00 %	1.10 %	-1 -
Jew, Swedish	15,000	15,000	●	Swedish	Ethnic Religions	1 ●	0.30 %	0.10 %	1
Korean	4,700	81,133,000		Korean	Christianity	5 ●	31.00 %	16.80 %	-1 -
Kurd, Kurmanji	11,000	15,639,000		Kurdish, Northern	Islam	1 ●	1.00 %	1.00 %	1
Latvian	4,700	1,435,000		Latvian, Standard	Christianity	4 ●	60.00 %	7.00 %	-1 -
Lithuanian	9,500	2,795,000		Lithuanian	Christianity	3 ●	84.00 %	1.00 %	-1 -
Macedonian	4,000	1,947,000		Macedonian	Christianity	3 ●	66.00 %	0.20 %	-1 -
Mandaean	5,400	69,000		Mandaic	Other / Small	1 ●	2.00 %	0.00 %	1
Moroccan, Arabic-speaking	5,700	29,308,000		Arabic, Moroccan Spoken	Islam	0 ☀	0.09 %	0.00 %	1
Norwegian	37,000	4,752,000		Norwegian	Christianity	4 ●	91.00 %	8.40 %	-1 -
Ovdalian	2,500	2,500	●	Ovdalian	Christianity	4 ●	55.00 %	3.00 %	-1 -
Persian	44,000	42,533,000		Persian, Iranian	Islam	4 ●	8.00 %	6.00 %	-1 -
Peruvian	4,300	25,472,000		Spanish	Christianity	5 ●	93.00 %	13.00 %	-1 -
Polish	58,000	42,436,000		Polish	Christianity	3 ●	90.00 %	0.30 %	-1 -
Portuguese	2,900	19,394,000		Portuguese	Christianity	4 ●	96.00 %	2.80 %	-1 -
Romani, Kalo Finnish	3,200	26,000	●	Romani, Kalo Finnish	Christianity	4 ●	55.00 %	3.00 %	-1 -
Romani, Swedish	4,900	4,900	●	Swedish	Christianity	3 ●	65.00 %	2.00 %	-1 -
Romani, Tottare	28,000	35,000	●	Swedish	Christianity	4 ●	55.00 %	3.00 %	-1 -
Romani, Vlax	12,000	1,135,000	●	Romani, Vlax	Christianity	4 ●	55.00 %	4.00 %	-1 -
Romanian	18,000	21,169,000		Romanian	Christianity	4 ●	97.00 %	5.40 %	-1 -
Russian	9,200	134,985,000		Russian	Christianity	3 ●	67.00 %	1.20 %	-1 -
Saami, Lule	6,900	8,800	●	Saami, Lule	Christianity	4 ●	94.00 %	5.00 %	-1 -
Saami, Northern	5,800	43,000	●	Saami, North	Christianity	4 ●	93.00 %	5.00 %	-1 -
Saami, Pite	2,000	2,000	●	Swedish	Christianity	4 ●	94.00 %	6.00 %	-1 -
Saami, Southern	700	1,400	●	Saami, South	Christianity	4 ●	94.00 %	6.00 %	-1 -
Saami, Ume	1,000	1,000	●	Swedish	Christianity	4 ●	94.00 %	6.00 %	-1 -
Serb	11,000	9,910,000		Serbian	Christianity	3 ●	80.00 %	0.60 %	-1 -
Slovak	1,200	5,081,000		Slovak	Christianity	3 ●	93.00 %	1.20 %	-1 -
Slovene	900	1,942,000		Slovene	Christianity	3 ●	54.00 %	0.10 %	-1 -
Somali	46,000	24,173,000		Somali	Islam	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
South Asian, general	62,000	12,252,000		Hindi	Hinduism	1 ●	5.00 %	0.50 %	1
Spaniard	8,500	28,760,000		Spanish	Christianity	3 ●	77.00 %	1.00 %	-1 -
Swedish	8,748,000	9,077,000	●	Swedish	Christianity	4 ●	57.00 %	6.05 %	-1 -
Syrian Aramaic, Turoyo	17,000	178,000		Turoyo	Christianity	3 ●	90.00 %	0.30 %	-1 -
Tajik	26,000	10,080,000		Tajik	Islam	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
Thai	31,000	23,632,000		Thai	Buddhism	1 ●	0.50 %	0.30 %	1
Tibetan	1,000	1,112,000		Tibetan, Central	Buddhism	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
Tigray, Tigrinya	13,000	9,198,000		Tigrigna	Christianity	4 ●	90.00 %	3.00 %	-1 -
Turk	34,000	65,298,000		Turkish	Islam	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
Ukrainian	3,100	37,190,000		Ukrainian	Christianity	4 ●	80.00 %	3.00 %	-1 -
Uyghur	2,000	12,453,000		Uyghur	Islam	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
Uzbek, Northern	3,000	31,315,000		Uzbek, Northern	Islam	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
Vietnamese	9,100	85,922,000		Vietnamese	Buddhism	2 ●	9.00 %	1.80 %	-1 -
Yazidi	4,300	737,000		Kurdish, Northern	Ethnic Religions	0 ☀	0.00 %	0.00 %	1
Totals: 88	10,149,000					22 ●	55.77 %	5.77 %	23
Unclassified / Other Individuals	11,000
UN Country Population (2021)	10,160,000

* An estimate of the number of pioneer workers needed for initial church planting among unreached people groups by country. Estimates are calculated only for unreached people groups and are based on ratio of 1 worker-unit (single person or married couple) per 50,000 living in an unreached people group by country, or for example one team of four worker-units per 200,000 people. Some workers may already be onsite. Many more workers are needed beyond this initial estimate.

Download Data Data Sources Definitions

Prayer Cards

Click column headings for sorting ▲▼
Province ▲	Estimated Population
Blekinge	164,000
Dalarna	300,000
Gävleborg	300,000
Gotland	62,000
Halland	314,000
Jämtland	138,000
Jönköping	361,000
Kalmar	254,000
Kronoberg	195,000
Norrbotten	274,000
Orebro	299,000
Östergötland	454,000
Skåne	1,287,000
Södermanland	286,000
Stockholm	2,083,000
Uppsala	347,000
Värmland	296,000
Västerbotten	280,000
Västernorrland	265,000
Västmanland	269,000
Västra Götaland	1,670,000
Provinces: 21	9,898,000
UN Country Population	10,160,000

Sweden Prayer Cards
	Sweden prayer cards. All Unreached

Sweden Links
Operation World
World Factbook
God Reports (stories from the field)
Religious Freedom Report
UN Human Development Report
Ethnologue Language Listing
National Bible Society

Sweden Maps
Language Map (Ethnologue)
Perry-Castaneda Map Collection

Click column headings for sorting ▲▼
Class ▲	Population	% Popl	% Hindu	% Muslim	% Christian	% Buddhist	% Sikh	% Other
Forward Caste (FC)	289,990,000	2,857.3 %	97.3 %	0.0 %	1.1 %	0.1 %	0.0 %	1.5 %
Other Backward Classes (OBC)	774,293,000	7,629.3 %	70.2 %	24.9 %	1.7 %	0.1 %	2.3 %	0.8 %
Scheduled Caste (SC)	207,376,000	2,043.3 %	93.5 %	0.0 %	0.5 %	3.4 %	2.6 %	0.0 %
Scheduled Tribe (ST)	115,473,000	1,137.8 %	81.9 %	1.5 %	9.1 %	0.8 %	0.0 %	6.7 %
	10,149,000

Why Use Caste to Define Peoples?

South Asia Communities / Castes: An Overview

A History of South Asia People Group Lists

Why Include Religion When Defining South Asia Peoples?

Click column headings for sorting ▲▼
Language ▲	Code	# Peoples w/ this Primary Language	# Unreached w/ this Primary Language	Scripture Status	NT Text Online	NT Audio Online	Jesus Film Online	Audio Recordings Online	Gospel Tract Online
Albanian, Gheg	aln	1	1	4 New Testament	1	1	1	1	1
Amharic	amh	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Arabic, Algerian Spoken	arq	1	1	4 New Testament	-1	-1	1	1	-1
Arabic, Egyptian Spoken	arz	1	0	4 New Testament	-1	1	1	1	1
Arabic, Libyan Spoken	ayl	1	1	3 Bible Portions	-1	-1	1	-1	-1
Arabic, Mesopotamian Spoken	acm	1	1	4 New Testament	-1	1	1	1	-1
Arabic, Moroccan Spoken	ary	1	1	4 New Testament	1	1	1	1	-1
Arabic, North Levantine Spoken	apc	2	0	3 Bible Portions	-1	-1	-1	1	-1
Arabic, South Levantine Spoken	ajp	1	1	3 Bible Portions	-1	-1	1	1	-1
Arabic, Sudanese Spoken	apd	1	1	4 New Testament	-1	1	1	1	-1
Arabic, Tunisian Spoken	aeb	1	1	4 New Testament	1	-1	1	1	-1
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic	aii	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Azerbaijani, North	azj	1	1	5 Complete Bible	-1	1	1	1	-1
Bavarian	bar	1	0	5 Complete Bible	-1	-1	-1	1	-1
Bosnian	bos	1	1	5 Complete Bible	-1	-1	1	1	-1
Bulgarian	bul	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Chinese, Mandarin	cmn	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Chinese, Yue	yue	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	-1
Croatian	hrv	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	-1	1	1	1
Czech	ces	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Danish	dan	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Dutch	nld	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
English	eng	5	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Estonian, Standard	ekk	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	-1	1	-1	1
Finnish	fin	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Finnish, Tornedalen	fit	1	0	3 Bible Portions	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1
French	fra	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
German, Standard	deu	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
German, Swiss	gsw	1	0	4 New Testament	-1	-1	-1	1	-1
Greek	ell	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Hindi	hin	1	1	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Hungarian	hun	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Icelandic	isl	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Italian	ita	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Kabuverdianu	kea	1	0	3 Bible Portions	-1	-1	1	1	-1
Korean	kor	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Kurdish, Northern	kmr	2	2	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	-1
Latvian, Standard	lvs	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Lithuanian	lit	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Macedonian	mkd	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Mandaic	mid	1	1	0 Unspecified	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1
Norwegian	nor	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	-1	1
Ovdalian	ovd	1	0	0 Unspecified	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1
Persian, Iranian	pes	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	-1
Polish	pol	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Portuguese	por	2	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Romani, Kalo Finnish	rmf	1	0	3 Bible Portions	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1
Romani, Vlax	rmy	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	-1
Romanian	ron	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Russian	rus	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Saami, Lule	smj	1	0	4 New Testament	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1
Saami, North	sme	1	0	5 Complete Bible	-1	-1	-1	1	-1
Saami, South	sma	1	0	3 Bible Portions	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1
Serbian	srp	1	0	5 Complete Bible	-1	1	1	1	1
Slovak	slk	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	-1
Slovene	slv	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Somali	som	1	1	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Spanish	spa	5	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Swedish	swe	7	1	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Swedish Sign Language	swl	1	0	3 Bible Portions	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1
Tagalog	tgl	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Tajik	tgk	1	1	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Thai	tha	1	1	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Tibetan, Central	bod	1	1	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	-1
Tigrigna	tir	1	0	5 Complete Bible	-1	1	1	1	1
Turkish	tur	1	1	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Turoyo	tru	1	0	4 New Testament	-1	-1	1	1	-1
Ukrainian	ukr	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Uyghur	uig	1	1	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	-1
Uzbek, Northern	uzn	1	1	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	-1
Vietnamese	vie	1	0	5 Complete Bible	1	1	1	1	1
Totals:	71	88	22		48	51	60	61	41

MAJOR RELIGIONS ▲	Percent
Buddhism	0.5 %
Christianity (Evangelical 5.8 %)	55.8 %
Ethnic Religions	0.3 %
Hinduism	0.4 %
Islam	3.6 %
Non-Religious	38.4 %
Other / Small Religions	1.0 %
Unknown	0.0 %

CHRISTIAN SEGMENTS ▲	Percent
Anglican	0.2 %
Independent	1.2 %
Orthodox	2.9 %
Other Christian	0.3 %
Protestant	90.3 %
Roman Catholic	4.0 %

Notes:

Major Religions: Religion percentages are derived from summing Joshua Project's data for all people groups who live in each country. The number of individuals who practice each religion, by people group, are summed. This number is divided by the country's total population to derive the religion's percentage.

Christianity Segments: Christian segment percentages are derived from summing Joshua Project's data for all the people groups who live in each country. The number of individuals who practice each segment of Christianity, by people group, are summed. This number is divided by the country's total number of Christians to derive the Christian segment's percentage.

Networking Possibilities

Search the Web
There are many agencies and churches looking for additional staff to help them in their mission and calling in Sweden. Internet searches are probably the best way to find these organizations. The following are some example search topics you might try:

Church planting agencies in Sweden
Christian ministry in Sweden
Business as mission
Christian literature distribution
Evangelism agencies
Christian discipleship
Short term Christian missions

Long term Christian missions
Urban ministries
Christian media opportunities
Bible translation opportunities
Relief and development agencies
Clean water projects
Christian medical outreaches

Sweden Statistics
People Groups	88
Unreached People Groups	22 (25.0%)
Population	10,149,000
Population Annual Growth Rate	0.7%
Population in Unreached	394,000 (3.9%)
Primary Religion	Christianity
Percent Christian Adherent	55.8%
Percent Evangelical	5.8%
Evangelical Annual Growth Rate	-0.6%
Pioneer Workers Needed *	23
Country Progress Level	4 ●
Urbanization	87%
Continent	Europe
Region	Europe, Western
10/40 Window	No
Country Code	SW
Official Language(s)	Swedish
Literacy Rate	99%
Estimated Illiterate Population	101,000
Persecution Ranking	Not ranked

Sweden Maps
Language Map (Ethnologue)
Perry-Castaneda Map Collection

Sweden Prayer Cards
	Sweden prayer cards. All Unreached

Sweden Links
Operation World
Stratus Earth Index
Prosperity Index
Social Progress Index
World Factbook
Religious Freedom Report
UN Human Development Report
Ethnologue Language Listing
National Bible Society

Sweden Videos
More great prayer resources at Prayercast

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