Statistics from the January 2006 edition of the International Journal of Missionary Research tell us that 171,000 Christians were martyred in 2005.  

The World Evangelical Alliance estimates that 200 million Christians live in societies where they daily face the threat of being imprisoned, tortured, and killed because of their identity as Christians. 

More Nigerian Christians died in the first week of November, 2001 than in the World Trade Center Towers. 

Many believe that the primary persecutor of the Church today is militant Islam. While it is true that the rate of violence against Christians is growing in many Muslim nations, perhaps the most dangerous nation on earth for someone to openly confess Christ is communist North Korea. Christians there are brutalized in prisons or summarily executed if caught with a copy of the Scriptures. 

China's crackdown on rapidly growing and unregistered Christian groups belies the popular dogma that increased trade with a nation will inevitably lead to a greater degree of freedom and respect for human rights.

Church leaders continue to be detained, tortured, and drugged in Vietnam.

Sadly, as we enter the 21st century, we still find that more Christians suffer at the hands of Communist authorities than any others, just as they did through most of the past 100 years.

India and Sri Lanka have experienced a dramatic rise in religiously motivated persecution in recent years. State and/or federal governments in both countries have passed or threatened anti-conversion laws as a means of stifling the rapid growth of the Church.