New data reveals that more than 500 million Christians worldwide face Bible access restrictions, as laws imposed by governments hostile to Christianity and socioeconomic barriers prevent many people who would like Bibles from having them.
The Bible Access Initiative released its 2026 Bible Access List Thursday, which provided updated statistics about access to the Bible worldwide by specifically highlighting countries where Bible access is explicitly restricted and places where Christians want the Bible but find themselves unable to access it. Overall, more than 500 million Christians worldwide face Bible access restrictions while over 125 million would like a Bible but do not have one.
The report examined 106 countries, with a full analysis now available online. Afghanistan was identified as the country with the most restrictions on BIble access, followed by Yemen, Somalia, North Korea, Eritrea and Mauritania. All of the aforementioned countries have what the Bible Access Initiative refers to as “maximum restrictions” on Bible access. Turkmenistan, Libya, Sudan and Iran round out the list of the countries with the top 10 strongest Bible access restrictions.
Those countries, along with Comoros and Maldives, are categorized as having “extreme restrictions.” Countries listed as having “severe restrictions,” a step lower than “extreme restrictions,” are Algeria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Niger, Burkina Faso, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Morocco, Syria, Bhutan, Azerbaijan, Mali, Oman, Brunei, Myanmar, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Chad, Iraq, Central African Republic, Malaysia, Laos, India, Kuwait, Ethiopia, Cuba, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Mozambique, Bangladesh, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Cameroon, Venezuela, Togo, Turkey, Lebanon, Tanzania, South Sudan, Malawi, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Kenya are identified as countries having “considerable restrictions” while Nicaragua, Russia, the Ivory Coast, Ukraine, Rwanda, Colombia, Uganda, Senegal, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Benin, Angola, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Burundi and Liberia