Vision 2025: translation under way in every language that needs it
GradeGoal missed
In 1999 Wycliffe Bible Translators International and SIL adopted Vision 2025, which, in the Wycliffe Global Alliance's words, "envisioned Bible translation to be started within a generation for every language that still needs it". At the time, more than 5,000 languages were waiting. By August 2025 the list had shrunk to 544, spoken by 36.8 million people, a fall of about nine-tenths in 26 years. For Christians, that is a remarkable achievement of a single generation of translators, and newer goals have since been set to carry the work further.
Goal missed: by the agency's own definition, Vision 2025 was not met, because 544 languages were still "on the waiting list for Bible translation to begin" in August 2025. The progress towards it was nonetheless very large. Newer goals for 2033, the "All Access Goals", are reported to aim at a full Bible for 95% of the world, a New Testament for 99.96% and some Scripture for all; they are not yet due, and will be checked when they are.
Explore the counterarguments
A dated goal is a forecast, and this one fell short on its own terms. Because the definition of the waiting list changed in 2016 and 2018, the size of the fall depends partly on how the list was counted. And because the agencies work deliberately towards , meeting or missing such a goal reflects the pace of the work, not the fulfilment of the verse.