Direct answer · reviewed September 2026

What is the largest unreached people group?

The Shaikh of South Asia — around 250 million people across Bangladesh, India and Pakistan — are generally counted as the largest unreached people group on earth. They are followed by the Bengali Muslim and the Japanese peoples. People-group populations vary widely by source and definition.

Shaikh250 million
Bengali Muslim150 million
Japanese123 million
Turk60 million
01

The largest unreached and frontier peoples

Profiled on this site, largest first
PeoplePopulationReligionStatus
Shaikh250 millionIslam (Sunni)Frontier
Bengali Muslim150 millionIslam (Sunni)Frontier
Japanese123 millionShinto and BuddhismUnreached
Turk60 millionIslam (Sunni)Frontier
Persian50 millionIslam (Shia)Frontier
Sundanese40 millionIslam (Sunni)Frontier
Somali25 millionIslam (Sunni)Frontier
Central Thai25 millionTheravada BuddhismFrontier
Moroccan Arab25 millionIslam (Sunni)Frontier
Northern Kurd20 millionIslam (Sunni)Frontier
Southern Pashtun16 millionIslam (Sunni)Frontier
Hui11 millionIslam (Sunni)Frontier
02

Why the numbers vary

Researchers disagree about where one people ends and another begins — whether a caste-like community such as the Shaikh counts as one group or many, or whether a diaspora is counted with its homeland. Treat every figure as an order of magnitude, not a census.

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Related questions

Why are the Shaikh unreached if Scripture exists in their languages?

Because the barrier is belonging, not translation: following Jesus is widely read as leaving family and community altogether.

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