Operation World – Unreached People Groups

The Unfinished Task — The World's Peoples

It was only during the 1990s that a reasonably complete listing of the world's peoples and languages was developed. For the first time in history we have a reasonably clear picture of the remaining task for us to disciple the nations.

Here is a summary of our present assessment of the least reached peoples. Of the world's 12,000 ethnolinguistic peoples, about 3,000 — 3,600 are 'World A' peoples in which less than 50% are likely to have heard the gospel. Nearly all originate from the 10/40 Window area and most can be broadly classified in 11 major Affinity Blocs. Their affinities include culture, language use, geography, history, etc. See the map on p.17. The table below shows the number of peoples, their populations (in 1,000's) and the number of professing Christians (also in 1,000s) for all peoples (Worlds A, B, C) and for the least reached (World A).

Affinity Bloc	Peoples		Population		Christians		Area
	Total	World A	Total	World A	Total	World A
Sub-Saharan	1,709	893	307,288	124,167	86,432	2,830	W Africa to Sudan.
Horn of African	135	83	50,890	24,944	13,360	619	Excluding Ethiopians.
Arab World	410	242	247,225	98,351	19,405	252	North Africa and West Asia.
Indo-Iranian	141	134	127,557	100,283	113	74	E Turkey, Iran, Afghan., NE Pakistan.
Turkic/Altaic	139	126	90,079	89,927	42	8	Turkey, C Asia, Siberia, China, Mongolia.
Tibeto-Burman	422	276	80,049	35,022	6,945	808	W China, Himalayas, Myanmar, etc.
South Asian	773	437	1456,468	735,576	47,066	7,068	Important caste distinctions not included.
SE Asian	429	338	204,842	98,637	8,223	1,270	Indo-China, Thailand, S & SW China.
East Asian	73	28	151,605	146,789	3,718	2,047	Excl. Chinese, South Koreans.
Malay	938	554	245,355	123,334	25,923	1,116	Excl. Filipinos, Malagasy, Chamorro.
Jewish	175	92	14,318	2,693	549	0	Mainly N America, Israel, but also global.
Rest of World	6,656	354	3,090,324	82,277	1,761,224	3,908	C & E Africa, Eur, E Asia, Americas, Pacific.
World Total	12,000	3,557	6,066,000	1,662,000	1,973,000	20,000

Over 90% of all the least-reached peoples on earth either live within the areas shown on the above map or have migrated to other parts of the world. In all the rest of the world are about 350 peoples with 82 million individuals which are in the least-reached category.

There are an estimated 20 million Christians among the World A peoples, and probably some ongoing church-planting ministry among 2,500 of the 3,500 peoples. Within these Affinity Blocs are the more closely related 160 or so people clusters into which a majority of these less-reached can be grouped. Many of these are mentioned later in the book. Here we briefly cover the 11 Affinity Blocs themselves and some of the more important people clusters:

Affinity Bloc	Some Major Unreached People clusters
Sub-Saharan	Malinke, Soninke, Fulbe, Wolof, Gur, Chadian peoples, Hausa, Songhai, Kanuri, Zerma, Pygmy.
Horn of African	Afar, Beja, Somali, Oromo, Tigre, Nubian.
Arab World	Arabian Arab, Levant Arab, North African Arab, Hassaniya Arab, Berbers, Tuareg
Indo-Iranian	Persian, Kurd, Pathan, Baluch, Brahui, Tajik, Hazara, Mazanderani.
Turkic/Altaic	Azeri, Turk, Turkmen, Uyghur, Uzbek, Bashkort, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Mongolian, Siberian peoples.
Tibeto-Burman	Tibetan, Bhutanese, Burmese, Gurung, Newar, etc.
South Asian	Assamese, Bengali, Bhil, Bihari, N Indian, Deccani, Gond, Marathi, Gujarati, Gypsy, Sindhi, etc.
S.E Asian	Thai, Dai, Lao, Vietnamese, Khmer, Puyi.
East Asian	Hui and Hakka Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Manchurian.
Malay	Sumatran peoples, Minangkabau, Sunda, Madura, Malay, Bali, Sasak, Bugi, Philippine Muslims & Tribals.
Jewish	Sephardi (of Spanish/North African origin, Ashenkazi (European origin), Falasha (Ethiopia), etc.
Rest of World	Caucasus peoples, Bosnian, Albanian, Arctic peoples, Mexican indigenous peoples, West Irian peoples.
World Total	Approximately 160 people clusters embracing about 80% of the world's least reached peoples.