In the late 1980's, Louis Bush coined the phrase, "THE 10/40 WINDOW".  This refers to the area located from 10 degrees to 40 degrees north of the equator, which includes North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Cambodia, China, Thailand and several Eurasian countries.

95% of the unreached people groups of the world live in the 10/40 Window.  (An "unreached people group" is a segment of the population to which because of too few missionaries, the Gospel cannot spread along natural lines without encountering barriers of understanding, language, social hierarchy, politics, culture, history, geography, prejudice, etc.  They have no community of Christians able to lead them to salvation or sometimes even to a slight knowledge of Jesus Christ).

Almost all of the governments in this window are hostile to the Christian message.  Poverty, starvation and political problems are daily occurrences in most of these countries.

Within this 10/40 Window, there are more then a billion Muslim's, nearly a billion Hindu's, and over six hundred million Buddhist.

In Hinduism 33 million gods are worshiped, and 200 million cows are considered holy.

Excerpted from “The 10-40 Window”  Shepherds of Grace International.