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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Uyghurs of Turkiye

The Uyghurs of Turkiye, numbering approximately 47,500 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Turkic people native to Central and East Asia, with their historic homeland centered in the region they call East Turkestan and that is today the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwestern China. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Uighur is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Turkic Peoples
Country: Turkiye
People Cluster: Uyghur
Primary Language(s): Uighur (uig)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 47,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024600
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Pray for the Uyghurs of Turkiye

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

99%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Uighur
Language Family: Turkic

80%
%
Uyghur Speakers

Media Resources in Uighur:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Uighur:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Hazirqi Zaman Uyghurche Terjimisi/ Modern Uyghur✓✓✓
Hazirqi Zaman Uyghurche Terjimisi/ Modern Uyghur✓✓✓

2 entries

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Uighur bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Uyghurs 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 Uyghurs:
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 Uyghurs of Turkiye

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
readJohn 3:19

Pray that God will have mercy on those who love the darkness they are walking in and turn from their sin to faith in Christ.

As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
readMatthew 13:23

Pray that their hearts will have good soil that receives the Word, understands it, and bears fruit for God's kingdom.

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
readRomans 10:15

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be eager to proclaim the good news of peace, knowing that the Lord has called them to this task.

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
readActs 17:30

Pray that those God sends to cross cultures will boldly and lovingly declare that God commands all people everywhere to repent.

Uyghur Across Countries (ROP3 - 110469) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

8 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountry ▼PopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
UyghursPG024322UyghursUzbekistan66,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG047221UyghursUnited States10,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG024600UyghursTurkiye47,500Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG011939UyghursSaudi Arabia9,500Unengaged and UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG024374UyghursKyrgyzstan27,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG024329UyghursKazakhstan294,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG024104UyghursChina9,610,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG050491UyghursCanada1,700Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni 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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