10/40 Window - Controversy

Controversy

Some have objected to such a broad-brush term which seems to imply a unifying characteristic of the window when in fact no large area of the planet is completely homogenous in cultural attributes.

While the conclusions are unsettling to some, to date the 1990 research data stands uncontested:

• that part of the world was home to the largest populations living in deep poverty and lowest quality of life;
• that part of the world did have least access to Christian resources. Note the emphasis on access not percent Christian. The West has ubiquitous access to such resources; this area of the world did and does not.

This research deals in overall population characteristics. The 10/40 Window is a term that helps people visualize the general area of the analysis, where the above characteristics are generally true, but with exceptions proving it is only a generalization. Some examples of the exceptions:

• The Window article refers to the "poorest of the poor" living in that region (based on late-1980's per-capita GNP under US$500). Of 3.0 Billion people living in such poverty-stricken nations, 82% lived in the 10/40 Window. Yet such a result contrasts with 10/40 Window nations such as South Korea and Japan. Japan boasts the world's third largest economy, while South Korea the eleventh. Such nations were strong throughout the late 20th century.
• Geographically, the Window includes the Philippines and Portugal, which are both nations with a Roman Catholic Christian majority, also Greece where almost 98% of the population belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church, plus South Korea, which is home to the largest single congregation church in the world and is also the second largest missionary sending nation in the world. The window does not encompass Indonesia or Sri Lanka, nations with very little access to Christian resources.