10/40 window

The 10/40 window is a term coined by Christian missionary strategist and Partners International CEO Luis Bush in 1990 to refer to those regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, plus the European and African part of the Western Hemisphere, located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, a general area that was purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and least access to the Christian message and Christian resources on the planet. The concept behind the 10/40 window highlights these three elements (as of data available in 1990): an area of the world with great poverty and low quality of life, combined with lack of access to Christian resources and unreached non-Christians. The window forms a band encompassing Saharan and Northern Africa, as well as almost all of Asia (West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and much of Southeast Asia). Roughly two-thirds of the world population lives in the 10/40 window, and it is predominantly Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, animist, or atheist. Many governments in the 10/40 window are officially or unofficially opposed to Christian missionary work of any kind within their borders.