The recent State of the Bible report from the American Bible Society reported this statistic:  57 percent of the world’s languages do not have a translation of the Bible.

The same survey showed a super majority of Americans believe the Bible has already been translated into every language on the planet.  Of 2,000 surveyed Americans, 72 percent said they believe the Gospel is available to the world in their native tongue.

Almost 31 percent of languages in the world do not even have a Bible translation underway and another 26 percent do not have a completed Bible translation.

Wycliffe Bible Translators president Bob Creson told the Christian Post that while there is a huge number of languages without a Bible, the translation process is happening faster than at any time in history.

“[2,195] is the highest number in history. There is more work going on than ever before. One of the ways I usually talk about it is that people have more access to Scripture than any other time in history in their first language. It gives people the best opportunity to respond to the Good News message,” Creson said.

Creson says that the goal is to have the translation process started for all the world’s languages by 2025.

“One way to look at [the survey], if you are a Bible translation agency like we are and the American Bible Society, you can be discouraged by that. But, that just shows you the opportunity that we have to continue to educate the Christian public about the need for Bible translation,” Creson said. “One of the big strengths of the American Bible Society is their geographic reach to be able to educate people on that issue. We partner with ABS on a number of different and important translation projects. I am very glad to see them doing this because they have a great reach to be able to help people understand that we are not there yet.”