The Bahnar of Vietnam

The Bahnar of Vietnam, numbering approximately 228,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an Indigenous Austroasiatic people of Vietnam's Central Highlands whose ancestors migrated westward from the Ba River region and who form one of the largest Bahnaric-speaking communities, closely linked to the history and culture of the Tây Nguyên. They mostly adhere to Animism and Bahnar is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Bahnar

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Southeast Asian Peoples
Country: Vietnam
People Cluster: Mon-Khmer
Primary Language(s): Bahnar (bdq)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 228,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 5% or Greater but Less than 10% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG011108
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Bahnar of Vietnam

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Animism
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

78%
%
Animism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Bahnar
Language Family: Austroasiatic

100%
%
Bahnar Speakers

Media Resources in Bahnar:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Bahnar:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Bahnar Bible✓

1 entry

Or check out the Bahnar bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Bahnar are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Bahnar:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Bahnar of Vietnam

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
readPsalm 62:1

Pray that those who are troubled and don't know about the God who saves will hear the good news and find rest in the one true God who can offer salvation for their souls.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
readPsalm 8:1

Pray that those who have yet to believe will soon recognize the majesty of God's name and raise their voices in praise to the Lord Almighty.

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
read1 Peter 3:15

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will always be prepared to share the reason for the hope that they have in Jesus with gentleness and respect.

And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
readMark 5:20

Pray that God will bring people who appear beyond hope to faith in Jesus and that they will then go and tell others of the marvelous things He has done.

Bahnar Across Countries (ROP3 - 100770) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

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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