The Turkmen of Uzbekistan

The Turkmen of Uzbekistan, numbering approximately 227,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are a Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Central Asia, living mainly in Turkmenistan, with communities in Iran, Afghanistan, and smaller diasporas in Turkey and the Middle East. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Turkmen is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Turkmen

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Turkic Peoples
Country: Uzbekistan
People Cluster: Turkmen
Primary Language(s): Turkmen (tuk)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 227,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024320
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Turkmen of Uzbekistan

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: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

99%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Turkmen
Language Family: Turkic

100%
%
Turkmen Speakers

Media Resources in Turkmen:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

3 films

Bible Resources in Turkmen:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2016 Institute for Bible Translation, Moscow✓✓✓
2016 Turkmen Truth✓✓✓

2 entries

Or check out the Turkmen 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 Turkmen:
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 Turkmen of Uzbekistan

Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together.
readGenesis 22:8

Pray that God will open the ears of those who are lost to understand and believe that only shed blood takes away sin and that, like Abraham, they will believe that God Himself provides the lamb for the burnt offering, who is Jesus the final, perfect sacrifice.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.
readPsalm 67:4

Pray that God will use ways from in-person witnesses to digital gospel resources to bring the joy of His salvation to everyone so that they can be glad in Him and sing for joy.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
readHebrews 10:24

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will love and encourage one another, spurring each other on to live lives that honor God.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
read2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Pray that as people hear and believe the gospel, they will serve others in Jesus' name, and the lost will have an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel.

Turkmen Across Countries (ROP3 - 110306) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

9 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
TurkmenTurkmenTurkmenistan5,360,000Engaged yet UnreachedTurkmenSunni Islam
TurkmenTurkmenIran2,785,000Engaged yet UnreachedTurkmenSunni Islam
TurkmenTurkmenAfghanistan2,105,000Engaged yet UnreachedTurkmenSunni Islam
TurkmenTurkmenTurkiye800,000Engaged yet UnreachedTurkishFolk Islam
TurkmenTurkmenUzbekistan227,000Unengaged and UnreachedTurkmenSunni Islam
TurkmenTurkmenPakistan15,000Engaged yet UnreachedTurkmenSunni Islam
TurkmenTurkmenTajikistan15,000Engaged yet UnreachedTurkmenSunni Islam
TurkmenTurkmenKyrgyzstan2,500Unengaged and UnreachedTurkmenSunni Islam
TurkmenTurkmenUnited States200Unengaged and UnreachedTurkmenSunni 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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