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The Ponapeans of Micronesia

The Ponapeans of Micronesia, numbering approximately 29,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Micronesian ethnic group indigenous to the island of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Pohnpeian is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Pacific Islander Peoples
Country: Micronesia
People Cluster: Micronesian
Primary Language(s): Pohnpeian (pon)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 29,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG018388
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Pray for the Ponapeans of Micronesia

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: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

—
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Pohnpeian
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%
Pohnpeian Speakers

Media Resources in Pohnpeian:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Pohnpeian:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Pohnpeian bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Ponapeans 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 Ponapeans:
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 Ponapeans of Micronesia

Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
readRomans 1:22

Ask God to pour out His mercy and bring those who are walking in their own wisdom to faith in Jesus.

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed"
readGalatians 3:8

Ask the Lord to fulfill His promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed by advancing the gospel to every people group who has yet to receive it.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
readJames 4:1

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will turn from worldly passions and live in unity with one another.

He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
readJohn 1:7

Pray that God will raise up witnesses to testify about Jesus so that all might believe, knowing that He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.

Ponapean Across Countries (ROP3 - 108108) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
PonapeansPG018388PonapeansMicronesia29,500No Longer UnreachedPohnpeianProtestantism
PonapeansPG047219PonapeansUnited States4,000No Longer UnreachedPohnpeianProtestantism

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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