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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Southern Sotho of South Africa

The Southern Sotho of South Africa, numbering approximately 5,435,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Sotho-Tswana ethnic group indigenous to Lesotho and South Africa. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Southern Sotho is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Sotho, Southern

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: South Africa
People Cluster: Bantu, Sotho-Tswana
Primary Language(s): Southern Sotho (sot)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 5,435,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG015533
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Pray for the Southern Sotho of South Africa

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: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

79%
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Southern Sotho
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

64%
%
Sotho, Southern Speakers

Media Resources in Southern Sotho:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Southern Sotho:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Southern Sotho bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Southern Sotho 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 Southern Sotho:
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 Southern Sotho of South Africa

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
readEphesians 2:4-5

Pray that those who have not yet received new life will be made alive together with Christ, saved by grace and raised up with Him to newness of life.

All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.
readPsalm 66:4

Pray that the good news of Jesus will advance here and that many will bow down and sing praises to His name.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
readRomans 6:11

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will lay down all evil desires, dying to sin and living for Him alone.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
readPsalm 139:14

Praise God for His creativity and power, and pray that He will raise up men and women from among them who are in awe of all He has done and want to go share the hope of Christ with others.

Sotho Across Countries (ROP3 - 109431) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

4 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Southern SothoPG015533Southern SothoSouth Africa5,435,000No Longer UnreachedSouthern SothoProtestantism
Southern SothoPG015283Southern SothoLesotho1,945,000Engaged yet UnreachedSouthern SothoRoman Catholicism
SothoPG015558SothoEswatini6,100No Longer UnreachedSouthern SothoProtestantism
BasothoPG047274BasothoUnited States300No Longer UnreachedSouthern SothoProtestantism

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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