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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Northern Pashtuns of Pakistan

The Northern Pashtuns of Pakistan, numbering approximately 19,190,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as an Eastern Iranian ethnolinguistic group indigenous to southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan They are an Indigenous people, with Pashtun as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Pashtun people cluster of the Persian-Median Peoples. Their primary religion is Sunni Islam. They primarily speak Pashto, Northern.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash: Northern Pashtun

Fast Facts*:

Affinity Group: Persian-Median Peoples
Country: Pakistan
People Cluster: Pashtun
Primary Language(s): Pashto, Northern (pbu)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 19,190,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024390
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Pray for the Northern Pashtuns of Pakistan

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: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

98%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Pashto, Northern
Language Family: Indo-European

78%
%
Pashto, Northern Speakers

Media Resources in Pashto, Northern:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film
MagdalenaView Film
The SaviorView Film

5 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Pashto, Northern:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Revised Yousafzai Pashto Bible 2020✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Pashto, Northern bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Northern Pashtuns 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 Northern Pashtuns:
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

Pray specifically for the Northern Pashtuns of Pakistan

Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!
readPsalm 30:10

Pray that people in the depths of despair and suffering and living outside of relationship with Christ will cry out to the Lord and find help, peace, and joy in Him.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
readPsalm 67:3

Pray that God will be working in people's hearts, give them opportunities to receive the gospel, and bring many to faith in Himself.

The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
readLamentations 3:25

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will trust in the goodness of the Lord as they wait on Him to answer their cries for help.

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
read1 Corinthians 9:22

Ask God to raise up believers from around the world to go and share the hope of Jesus with the lost so that they might trust in Him and have the hope of eternal life.

Pashtun, Northern Across Countries (ROP3 - 107909) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

6 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▲Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Northern PashtunsPG024585Northern PashtunsTurkiye6,700Engaged yet UnreachedPashto, NorthernSunni Islam
Northern PashtunsPG047285Northern PashtunsUnited States25,000Engaged yet UnreachedPashto, NorthernSunni Islam
Northern PashtunsPG050498Northern PashtunsCanada33,500Engaged yet UnreachedPashto, NorthernSunni Islam
Northern PashtunsPG012231Northern PashtunsUnited Arab Emirates456,000Engaged yet UnreachedPashto, NorthernSunni Islam
Eastern PashtunsPG043767Eastern PashtunsAfghanistan2,805,000Engaged yet UnreachedPashto, NorthernSunni Islam
Northern PashtunsPG024390Northern PashtunsPakistan19,190,000Engaged yet UnreachedPashto, NorthernSunni 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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