Unreached peoples of Turkmenistan
An overview of the country's people groups, focusing on those who still have little or no access to the gospel in their own language and culture.
Turkmenistan has 28 ethnic groups, and 20 of them (71.4% of the total) are still considered unreached by the gospel, together making up 95.2% of the country's population. The largest group is the Turkmen people themselves, with nearly 5.9 million people, of whom fewer than 1 in every 1,000 identify as Christian in any form. Other peoples, such as Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Balochs, and Kurds, also predominantly follow Islam and have very little contact with the gospel. The country's few Christians, mostly Russians and Armenians, arrived during the Soviet period and maintain historic churches, but there is almost no Christian witness among peoples of Turkmen and Central Asian origin.
- 95.2% Unreached (7.1M)
- 0.1% Minimally reached (9K)
- 2.9% Superficially reached (217K)
- 1.8% Partially reached (136K)
- 0% Significantly reached (0)
- 71.4% Unreached (20)
- 7.1% Minimally reached (2)
- 10.7% Superficially reached (3)
- 10.7% Partially reached (3)
- 0% Significantly reached (0)
Source of people group data: Joshua Project (joshuaproject.net). Estimates, may vary.
Source: Joshua Project. Estimates, may vary.
| People | Population | Language | Evang. | Chr. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lezgin Frontier | 707K | Lezgi | < 0.1% | < 0.1% |
| Aimaq Frontier | 2.4M | Aimaq | 0% | 0% |
| Ossetian Frontier | 649K | Ossetic | 0.1% | 7.7% |
| North Azeri | 10.4M | North Azerbaijani | 0.2% | 0.5% |
| Tabasaran Frontier | 153K | Tabasaran | 0% | 0% |
| Tatar | 5.7M | Tatar | 0.4% | 2.6% |
| Western Baloch Frontier | 1.4M | Western Balochi | 0% | 0% |
| Tajik Frontier | 12.3M | Tajik | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Kazakh | 18M | Kazakh | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| Turkmen Frontier | 8.7M | Turkmen | < 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Pashtun Frontier | 34.2M | Central Pashto | 0% | 0% |
| Kurmanji Kurd Frontier | 16.5M | Northern Kurdish | < 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Turk Frontier | 66.8M | Turkish | < 0.1% | < 0.1% |
| Crimean Tatars | 637K | Crimean Tatar | < 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Dargin Frontier | 638K | Dargwa | 0% | 0% |
| Karakalpak | 994K | Karakalpak | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| Lak Frontier | 189K | Lak | < 0.1% | < 0.1% |
| Northern Uzbek Frontier | 34.5M | Northern Uzbek | < 0.1% | < 0.1% |
| Chuvash | 1.1M | Chuvash | 1.5% | 50% |
| Persian | 48.4M | Iranian Persian | 1.5% | 1.8% |
| Deaf Frontier | 27.5M | Pakistan Sign Language | 1.8% | 3.7% |
| Bashkir | 1.6M | Bashkort | 1.1% | 4% |
| Mordvinian | 109K | Erzya | 1.4% | 61.8% |
| Russian | 134.2M | Russian | 1.5% | 64.9% |
| Belarusian | 8.6M | Belarusian | 1.8% | 69.6% |
| Gagauz | 214K | Gagauz | 1.8% | 87.6% |
| Ukrainian | 33.8M | Ukrainian | 4% | 75.1% |
| Armenian | 6M | Armenian | 9.3% | 94.6% |
Intercede for Turkmenistan and its peoples
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