The Haya of Tanzania

The Haya of Tanzania, numbering approximately 3,010,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Bantu people of northwestern Tanzania between the Kagera River and Lake Victoria, traditionally organized into patrilineal clans and several small kingdoms. They mostly adhere to Roman Catholicism and Haya is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Tanzania
People Cluster: Bantu, Central-Lakes
Primary Language(s): Haya (hay)
Primary Religion(s): Roman Catholicism
Population: 3,010,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG014938
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Haya of Tanzania

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: Roman Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

70%
%
Roman Catholicism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Haya
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

90%
%
Haya Speakers

Media Resources in Haya:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Haya:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2001 Bible Society of Tanzania✓

1 entry

Or check out the Haya bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Haya 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 Haya:
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 Haya of Tanzania

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
readMatthew 24:14

Pray that the message of hope will reach those who are wandering in darkness, offering them a path to eternal life.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.
readActs 17:26-27

Pray that the lost will seek God and find Him, for He is not far from each one of us. Pray that they will have opportunities to access the gospel, learn God's purpose for their lives, and believe in Him.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
readPsalm 51:9

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have confidence that God has turned His face from their sins and forgiven their iniquities.

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
read2 Corinthians 1:5

When any who might believe suffer for the sake of the gospel, ask God to deepen their understanding of His grace so that they may share it freely with those who have not received it.

Haya Across Countries (ROP3 - 103741) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

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