The Lao of United States

The Lao of United States, numbering approximately 236,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as a Lao American community shaped by refugee resettlement after the upheavals of the 1970s that maintains the language, traditions, and cultural heritage of the Lao people They are an Diaspora people, with Lao as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Lao people cluster of the Southeast Asian Peoples. They mostly adhere to Theravada Buddhism and Lao is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Southeast Asian Peoples
Country: United States
People Cluster: Lao
Primary Language(s): Lao (lao)
Primary Religion(s): Theravada Buddhism
Population: 236,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG046485
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Lao of United States

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: Theravada Buddhism
Religious Affiliation: Buddhism

60%
%
Theravada Buddhism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Lao
Language Family: Tai-Kadai

100%
%
Lao Speakers

Media Resources in Lao:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

2 films

Bible Resources in Lao:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Revised Lao Version✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Lao bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Lao 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 Lao:
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 Lao of United States

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.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
readRomans 2:4

Pray that, in God's kindness and according to His nature, He will lead many to repentance.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
readHebrews 10:26

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will live with reverence for God and not deliberately keep sinning after they receive the knowledge of the truth.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
read1 Corinthians 9:20

Pray that believers from similar cultures will be compelled by Christ's love to reach people who don't know the gospel, and that those people will receive the good news with joy.

Lao Across Countries (ROP3 - 105643) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

8 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion ▼
LaoLaoFrance19,500Engaged yet UnreachedLaoTheravada Buddhism
LaoLaoLaos3,975,000Engaged yet UnreachedLaoTheravada Buddhism
LaoLaoMyanmar26,000No Longer UnreachedLaoTheravada Buddhism
LaoLaoArgentina2,300Unengaged and UnreachedLaoTheravada Buddhism
LaoLaoCambodia41,000Engaged yet UnreachedLaoTheravada Buddhism
LaoLaoCanada17,000Engaged yet UnreachedLaoTheravada Buddhism
LaoLaoUnited States236,000Engaged yet UnreachedLaoTheravada Buddhism
LaoLaoVietnam206,000Unengaged and UnreachedLaoEthnoreligion

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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