The Kedayan of Malaysia

The Kedayan of Malaysia, numbering approximately 91,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are an Indigenous Bornean community of Sabah, Sarawak, and Labuan whose identity emerged within the Brunei cultural sphere and is distinguished by a closely related Malayic language and longstanding agricultural traditions. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Brunei is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Kedayan

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Malaysia
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Brunei (kxd)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 91,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG019336
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Kedayan of Malaysia

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

85%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Brunei
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%
Brunei Speakers

Media Resources in Brunei:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Brunei:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Brunei bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Kedayan:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Kedayan of Malaysia

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
readPsalm 51:1

Give thanks to God that He is able to forgive all the sins people might commit, and pray that many who don't yet know this will hear the good news and turn to Him for mercy.

For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!
readDeuteronomy 32:3

Pray that believers will proclaim the Lord’s name and declare the greatness of our God so that others might believe in Him.

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
readNumbers 6:26

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be blessed with peace in their lives, knowing that God is with them.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
readMatthew 9:37-38

Pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up believers to send out into His harvest field, which is ripe and ready.

Brunei-Kadaian Across Countries (ROP3 - 101679) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

4 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Brunei MalaysBrunei MalaysBrunei326,000Engaged yet UnreachedBruneiSunni Islam
KedayanKedayanMalaysia91,000Unengaged and UnreachedBruneiSunni Islam
BruneiBruneiCanada5,400Unengaged and UnreachedBruneiSunni Islam
Brunei-KadayanBrunei-KadayanUnited States750Unengaged and UnreachedBruneiSunni Islam

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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