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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Rungwa of Tanzania

The Rungwa of Tanzania, numbering approximately 55,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group of western Tanzania, closely associated with the Lake Rukwa basin and the Katavi–Rukwa region. They are an Indigenous people in the Bantu, Central-Tanzania people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary language is Rungwa and their primary religion is Roman Catholicism.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Tanzania
People Cluster: Bantu, Central-Tanzania
Primary Language(s): Rungwa (rnw)
Primary Religion(s): Roman Catholicism
Population: 55,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG015029
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Pray for the Rungwa of Tanzania

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.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Roman Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

65%
%
Roman Catholicism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Rungwa
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

85%
%
Rungwa Speakers

Media Resources in Rungwa:

Films:

No entries found for: Rungwa(rnw). Help build some!

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Rungwa:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Rungwa bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 1), 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 Rungwa:
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

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Rungwa are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Rungwa:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Rungwa 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 Rungwa:
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 Rungwa of Tanzania

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
readPsalm 73:26

Pray that those who are lost and struggling to find hope will find their strength and hope in God, recognizing Him as their portion and deliverer forever.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!
readPsalm 57:11

Pray that the lost will learn about God's great love and faithfulness so that they might trust in Christ for their salvation.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
read1 Corinthians 3:7

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be unified in making disciples and be used by God to further His kingdom near and far.

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
readMatthew 7:28-29

Pray that God will remind believers that they have His authority as they share His truth with the lost, and pray He will draw crowds of people to this message and plant it deeply in their hearts.

Rungwa Across Countries (ROP3 - 108446) reported in the following countries:

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 Definitions page.

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