According to KWMA, the number of missionaries dispatched from Korea increased from 25,745 persons in 2013, to 26,677 in 2014 and 27,205 in 2015. The range of increase, however, was reduced by 932 persons in 2014, by 528 in 2015, and finally to zero increase last year.
The statistics show that the region with the largest number of active Korean missionaries (53%) is Asia. That is because Asia is geographically close to Korea, and there are many “unreached” areas due to the strong influences of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
KWMA said that the statistics this year are not purely pessimistic, since they have resulted from the removal of “unreal” numbers of missionaries by the mission organizations surveyed. A source at KWMA explained, “The survey results do not say that there were no newly dispatched missionaries. The mission divisions of major denominations and mission organizations have continued to dispatch double-digit numbers of missionaries. At the same time, they now have stricter regulations for selecting them, which has resulted in similar levels of decrease and increase. Therefore the final number came to be the same.”
Reporter Sangmok Shin (smshin@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Graphic by Young Eun Lee
Full Story in Korean:
한국인 선교사 증가세 멈췄다… 사상 첫 ‘제로 성장’: 작년 한국세계선교협의회 파송 172개국에 총 2만7205명… 2015년 비해 한명도 안 늘어나