Ukrainian-language uptick among YouVersion Bible App 2022 data trends

EDMOND — An increased interest in scripture translated into the Ukrainian language kept Ukrainian translators of a popular Bible app busy translating God's word into their native language in 2022.

And when the war in Ukraine made this task too difficult for the Ukrainian translators, their Russian counterparts, stepped in to help, according to leaders with the free YouVersion Bible App.

This unity among Bible translators is among the behind-the-scenes highlights of the 2022 data trends for Edmond-based Life.Church's global app.

In a recent interview, Bobby Gruenewald, YouVersion founder and chief executive officer, said it's always interesting to see how the app helped connect people to the Bible each year, and the boost in Ukrainian-language usage was insightful.

At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, YouVersion searches in the Ukrainian language nearly doubled compared to the previous month. Version leaders noticed the uptick early on and began to respond by working to translate more of the Bible into Ukrainians' native language.

It was then that they saw a remarkable show of Christian unity across geographical boundaries and even the barriers caused by war.

Gruenewald said volunteer Russian translators stepped in complete Ukrainian-language translation efforts when volunteer Ukrainian translators' lives were disrupted by the war. He said when Ukrainian men were being called into war and women and children were fleeing to safety outside the country, Russian translation volunteers who help translate internal Bible app communications and portions of the Bible app into Russian took over the work for the Ukrainian translation team "which we thought was really, really neat and kind of symbolic."

"I mean, it's sort of easy to kind of make people heroes or villains when you see wars like this, but obviously, the people in a lot of these countries aren't responsible for the decisions of their leaders," he said.

"We thought that was a neat story about how we had one volunteer team stepping up to help the other volunteer team even though they happened to be from two countries that were at war with each other."

Gruenewald said Ukraine was one of the Bible app's most interesting Bible engagement stories of the year, particularly because of some of the details YouVersion data experts were able to glean.

Grunewald said in 2022, YouVersion Ukrainian-language Bible engagement in different European countries "skyrocketed" — some by triple digits — just as Ukrainian people fled the war and relocated to those countries. Specifically, Ukrainian Bible engagement increased in Poland by 241% and in Germany by 733% when comparing third-quarter data from 2021 and 2022. While Bible engagement in Ukraine rose by 55% in 2022, Ukrainian-language Bible engagement across Europe was even more significant with a 76% increase when comparing year-over-year third-quarter data.

Gruenewald said Bible app data also showed that trending search terms were words like “war,” “fear,” and “anxiety” initially. As time passed and the war progressed, the top search term in Ukrainian became "love.“

"These families are going through something most of us can’t imagine," he said. "In the middle of what’s likely the most difficult time of their lives, they’re turning to the Bible for comfort, peace, and hope."

Gruenewald said being able to provide these connections to God's word is important to YouVersion.

"It’s an honor that we get to be a part of making God’s Word available to His people in their greatest moments of need," he said.

The church leader said these real-life stories resonate and show why YouVersion has been committed to seeing the Bible translated into as many languages as possible. Currently, the Bible app is available in more than 1,900 languages and has been installed on more than 545 million unique devices.

"We really feel like the Bible transforms people's lives — we see that happen each and every day .... so we definitely love being able to help people read, listen to the read and listen to the Bible in their heart language."

Verse of the Year

Ukrainian Bible app engagement also converged with another data trend: Verse of the Year.

The verse that people in Ukraine engaged with most is also the same verse that the global YouVersion community shared, bookmarked and highlighted most. The verse in the top spot as YouVersion's 2022 Verse of the Year is Isaiah 41:10:

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

“The popularity of this verse speaks to our desire to be reminded that even when we feel like we’re alone in our struggles, we’re not,” Gruenewald said.

"As this verse says, God is our strength and He’s always with us."

Global engagement trends

With more than 545 million unique installs worldwide, YouVersion has seen Bible engagement activity in nearly every country and territory since launching in 2008. In 2022, Cuba stood out as the country with the greatest increase in Bible engagement, with an increase of 76% compared to 2021. Meanwhile, the fastest regional growth for Bible engagement was in Europe and Africa.

A complete look at YouVersion Bible engagement trends in 2022 is available at youversion.com/press.

Popular YouVersion features

Some of this year’s most popular YouVersion features in Europe and Africa include:

• People across both continents are sharing verses at a higher rate than last year with significant increases in Bulgaria (31%), Poland (38%), Uganda (53%), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (53%).

• Belgium has seen a 38% increase in audio Bible usage compared to last year and a 46% spike in verses highlighted.

• In both Nigeria and France, searches in YouVersion are up this year compared to last year with a 41% and 65% increase, respectively.

Compared to last year, more of the YouVersion Community has engaged with the Bible on a daily basis this year. In fact, when measuring the app’s highest Bible engagement days of all time, eight of the top 10 days were this year, with Sept. 11, 2022, and Easter Sunday holding the top spots. As people around the world engaged with the Bible, the YouVersion community:

• Opened the app 5.5 billion times

• Created 2.3 billion Highlights, Bookmarks, and Notes

• Shared 550 million Bible verses

• Completed 303 million in-app searches.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: YouVersion leaders offer highlights of 2022 data trends