More than one and a half million people completed Alpha around the world in 2007 – a 15 per cent increase on the previous year.

This is the finding of Christian Research, the independent organisation which monitors Alpha figures, in a new report released in May.
The report also found:

• Numbers attending Alpha in Africa and Asia/Pacific countries rose from 463,000 in 2006 to 670,000 in 2007 – an increase of 45 per cent.

• In Hong Kong, the city-wide Alpha Initiative involving posters and billboards resulted in course numbers increasing by 176 per cent from 15,105 to 41,700.

The encouraging statistics came as UK churches prepare for this September’s eleventh annual Alpha Invitation – a national advertising campaign backed by thousands of local events inviting the nation to Alpha.

Christian Research announced in February that 192,000 people did Alpha in the UK in 2007.