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The Samoans of New Zealand

The Samoans of New Zealand, numbering approximately 177,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Polynesian ethnic group indigenous to the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in Polynesia that is politically and geographically divided between the Independent State of Samoa and American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States of America. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Samoan is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Pacific Islander Peoples
Country: New Zealand
People Cluster: Polynesian
Primary Language(s): Samoan (smo)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 177,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG018506
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Pray for the Samoans of New Zealand

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

40%
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Samoan
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%
Samoan Speakers

Media Resources in Samoan:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Samoan:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Bible Society of South Pacific✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Samoan bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Samoans 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 Samoans:
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 Samoans of New Zealand

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
readJohn 3:19

Pray that God will have mercy on those who love the darkness they are walking in and turn from their sin to faith in Christ.

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.
readIsaiah 55:6

Pray that the lost will seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
readRomans 8:38-39

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have confidence in their salvation, knowing that nothing can separate them from the One who conquered death and loves them as His children.

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.
read3 John 1:2

Ask God to grant protection and good health — both physical and spiritual — to those He sends cross-culturally to share the gospel.

Samoan Across Countries (ROP3 - 108580) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

9 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
SamoansPG010683SamoansSamoa219,000No Longer UnreachedSamoanProtestantism
SamoansPG018506SamoansNew Zealand177,000No Longer UnreachedSamoanProtestantism
SamoansPG043514SamoansUnited States70,000No Longer UnreachedSamoanProtestantism
SamoansPG050229SamoansAmerican Samoa42,000No Longer UnreachedSamoanProtestantism
SamoansPG008236SamoansFiji1,300No Longer UnreachedSamoanProtestantism
SamoansPG050503SamoansCanada1,200No Longer UnreachedSamoanProtestantism
SamoansPG011059SamoansVanuatu350No Longer UnreachedSamoanProtestantism
SamoansPG018306SamoansTokelau150No Longer UnreachedSamoanProtestantism
SamoansPG018321SamoansTuvalu50No Longer UnreachedSamoanProtestantism

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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