Latin America

This week we begin a six week series focused on the 46 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

This region of the world is home to some 600 million people--about 8% of the world--and is projected to rise to about 700 million by 2025. Racial intermingling has made an exact determination of ethnic groups virtually impossible, but can be generally categorized as Amerindian, Asian, Blacks (descended from AFrican slaves brought to the region during the 16th century), Whites, and mixes these various groups. Asians are primarily found in Brazil and Peru; African descendants are mostly in the Caribbean and Brazil. There are large numbers of European minorities. The population of the region is heavily urban: about three-quarters live in metropolitan areas, and there are 51 megacities (with over 1 million inhabitants). Mexico City and Sao Paulo are among the largest urban agglomerations in the world. Migration is a key issue in Latin America, particularly between the region and the United States. Spanish and Portuguese are the dominant languages, but there are numerous minority and creole languages as well.

Latin America's economy has been rapidly developing. Brazil is one of the so-called "BRIC" nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China). Most of the Latin American nations have developed to a higher degree than China, although not to the same level as the United States and Europe. However, poverty continues to be a significant issue, and the economic divide between the rich and the poor is a major challenge. Tourism is a key part of the economic life in the area, and many of the countries can be significantly damaged by any downturn in tourists.

At the start of the 20th century the region was almost entirely Roman Catholic, with nearly five centuries of Catholic history. At that time, over 95% of the region's population would have professed to be Christian. Today, that percentage is not greatly different. The population as a whole grew by 2.05% per annum over the past century, while Christianity grew by 2.03%: it lost ground slightly, falling from 95% of the population in 1900 to 92% today. The balance has gone to the nonreligious, who now make up nearly 3% of Latin America, and to a small revival in Spiritism, mainly in Brazil. Other world religions have also grown in size although their overall percentage of Latin America remains small: Islam, for example, grew from some 70,000 members in 1900 to nearly 2 million today, but still only make up about 0.3% of the region.

Christians have remained the dominant majority in Latin America, but the makeup of Christianity has changed. Latin America was solidly Catholic at the start of the century. Today Catholics are still large, numbering 478 million out of a total population of 593 million. But the growth rate in the Catholic tradition has fallen far short: for the decade of 2000-10, the population grew at 1.28% but the Catholic tradition grew by just 0.78%. Meanwhile Protestants were growing at 2.52% per year - nearly double the population - and thereby increased from 1 million in 1900 to 57 million today. Meanwhile marginal Christians such as Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons grew from 4,000 in 1910 to 11 million in 2010. The Pentecostal-Charismatic movement has been particularly fast-growing. Today, the largest Catholic Charismatic community can be found in Brazil.

Of course, there is a phenomenal amount of missionary activity focused on Latin America. Some 4,000 missionaries in 350 agencies are at work in the region, not counting the vast numbers of short-term mission trips taken to Latin America every year. Trying to give even a brief accounting of this vast mission work is virtually impossible; it is enough to say that you can call up virtually any denominational mission board, major missionary-sending church or mission agency and, unless they are particularly specialized, you'll find they are doing something in this region. At the same time, let us not forget the vast number of missionaries now coming from Latin America to the rest of the world. COMIBAM is the regional network for missions, with a particular emphasis on the unreached. One classic example is PM International, with a vision to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom among all Islamic peoples.

In the next six weeks we will focus on Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, with spotlights in special countries in each. If you're working in this region, we'd be happy to hear from you!

From JustinLong.org.