What Are Unreached People Groups?
Unreached people groups are ethnic or cultural groups where there is little to no local Christian presence able to share the gospel from within the community itself. They are often identified as having 5% or fewer Christians and 2% or fewer Evangelicals.
In practical terms, unreached people groups usually do not have a self-sustaining local church.
As a result, many people in these communities have never had a meaningful opportunity to hear and respond to the message of Jesus Christ in their own language and cultural context.
Today, roughly 43–44% of the world’s population (about 3.5 billion people) live among unreached people groups.
Within the broader category of unreached people groups, there are communities facing an even greater urgency. These groups remain among the least reached in the world, with limited access to the gospel and very few resources or workers present. Focusing attention on them is critical if those who have never heard are to be given a meaningful opportunity to encounter the message of Jesus.
A Frontier People Group (FPG) is a subset of unreached people groups with an extremely minimal Christian presence — often less than 0.1%, requiring pioneer cross-cultural engagement to begin gospel witness.
An Unengaged and Unreached People Group (UUPG) is an unreached group for which there are currently no known church-planting efforts or active strategies underway to establish an indigenous Christian movement.
Find a People Group
For more information about unreached people groups, country-specific information, and educational resources, Damascus Road recommends the following:
Local ministries and networks may have relevant knowledge beyond what is represented in these data sets.
There are many effective ways to engage unreached people groups and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. We invite you to explore our funding guidelines to see where your work aligns with our priorities.