North Macedonia

This small landlocked country in the Western Balkans has an ancient Christian heritage. The Republic of North Macedonia is still emerging from its communist past, with a legacy of political and economic weakness. The majority Macedonian population is religiously Orthodox Christians, with a large ethnic minority of Muslim Albanians estimated at 500,000-700,000. There is considerable political and ethnic tension between these two people groups, which fortifies resistance to the gospel, particularly among the Albanian Muslims. There are about 2,000 evangelical believers representing 0.17% of the total population.

More Information About North Macedonia

Population: 2.1 million
Official Language: Macedonian (Albanian is semi-official)
State of the Economy: North Macedonia is less developed and has a smaller economy than most of the other former Yugoslav states. It is still in transition to a market economy, but corruption and a weak legal system hinder successful development.
Religion: Orthodox 64.7%; Islam 33.3%; evangelical Christians 0.1%; other Christians 0.2%
State of the Church: Churches are generally small with about 30-40 members, and evangelicals are considered a sect by the majority of the population. There are no Christian television programs or newspapers and there is only one theological school that just opened in 2016. The number of Christian books is small. We currently have a growing church plant in Skopje reaching ethnic Albanians.

Number of People Groups

People Groups Unreached

9 (40.9%)

Progress Level

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Total Population

2,076,000

Population in Unreached

640,000 (30.8%)

Largest Religion

Christianity (62.0%)

% Christian Adherent

61.97%

% Evangelical

0.17%

Evangelical Annual Growth Rate

3.2%

(Global Rate = 2.6%)

(Source: JoshuaProject.com. For more detailed information, visit https://joshuaproject.net/countries/MK
Note: where more current statistics are known, those are being used in place of Joshua Project.)