The Deaf Serbs of Serbia

The Deaf Serbs of Serbia, numbering approximately 63,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a community of individuals who are culturally Deaf and actively participate in Deaf culture, often using sign language as their primary means of communication. They mostly adhere to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Yugoslavian Sign Language is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Deaf Peoples
Country: Serbia
People Cluster: Deaf
Primary Language(s): Yugoslavian Sign Language (ysl)
Primary Religion(s): Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Population: 63,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, Concentrated CP Activity
People Group ID: PG047733
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Deaf Serbs of Serbia

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: Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

50%
%
Eastern Orthodox Christia… Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Yugoslavian Sign Language
Language Family: Sign Language

100%
%
Slovenian Sign Language Speakers

Media Resources in Yugoslavian Sign Language:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Yugoslavian Sign Language:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Yugoslavian Sign Language bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Deaf Serbs 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 Deaf Serbs:
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 Deaf Serbs of Serbia

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
readRevelation 3:20

Pray that those who have not opened their hearts to Jesus will hear His knock and invite Him in as their Savior and Lord.

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
readPsalm 96:9

Pray that many who do not yet know Jesus will come to know Him and worship Him in the splendor of His holiness.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
read1 Peter 2:24

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will remember every day that Jesus' death on the cross brings real healing and restoration to their souls and joyfully share this good news with others.

And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
readLuke 10:2

Ask God to send out laborers into His harvest field, raising up believers from around the world to go and proclaim the kingdom of God with those who need to hear it.

Deaf Serb Across Countries (ROP3 - 116596) 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.

Scroll to Top