The Cabécar of Costa Rica

The Cabécar of Costa Rica, numbering approximately 15,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an Indigenous people of Costa Rica, belonging to the Chibchan language family and recognized as one of the country’s largest and most culturally resilient native groups. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Cabécar is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples
Country: Costa Rica
People Cluster: Central American Indigenous
Primary Language(s): Cabécar (cjp)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 15,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG025024
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Cabécar of Costa Rica

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: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

—
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Cabécar
Language Family: Chibchan

78%
%
Cabécar Speakers

Media Resources in Cabécar:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Cabécar:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Traducciones al Cabecar✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Cabécar bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Cabécar 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 Cabécar:
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 Cabécar of Costa Rica

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
read1 John 3:8

Pray for those living in darkness to recognize the destructive power of sin and the victory Christ has won over it.

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.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
readPsalm 62:2

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be in awe of Jesus, remembering that He is their rock, their fortress, and their salvation.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
readRomans 1:16

Pray that God will raise up sons and daughters who, like Paul, will be bold to share the gospel across cultural barriers so that many might receive salvation.

Chirripo (Cabécar ) Across Countries (ROP3 - 102163) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

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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