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The Melanau of Malaysia

The Melanau of Malaysia, numbering approximately 160,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic community of Malaysia. They mostly adhere to Folk Islam and Central Melanau is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Melanau

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Malaysia
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Central Melanau (mel)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Islam
Population: 160,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG018518
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Pray for the Melanau of Malaysia

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.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Folk Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

55%
%
Folk Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Central Melanau
Language Family: Austronesian

70%
%
Melanau, Central Speakers

Media Resources in Central Melanau:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Central Melanau:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Central Melanau bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Melanau 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 Melanau:
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 Melanau of Malaysia

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
read1 Timothy 6:9

Pray for those, rich and poor, who have put their trust in worldly things, and ask that they will be honest with themselves, acknowledge their need for God and turn to Him.

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them
readMatthew 4:24

Pray that the truth about the Lord will spread throughout the land so that many will have an opportunity to receive the good news and put their faith in Him.

But you said, "I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude."
readGenesis 32:12

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will experience God's presence and protection even in difficult circumstances, knowing that He will make them fruitful.

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.
readPsalm 96:4

Pray that God will raise up believers to declare His glory among the lost, so that they may know that He is great and greatly to be praised, that He is exalted above all gods.

Melanau Across Countries (ROP3 - 106531) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
MelanauPG018518MelanauMalaysia160,000No Longer UnreachedCentral MelanauFolk 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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