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The West Gurage of Ethiopia

The West Gurage of Ethiopia, numbering approximately 3,075,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are a Semitic-speaking people of central Ethiopia associated with the western portion of the Gurage cultural area. They are part of the broader Gurage ethnolinguistic complex and are identified particularly with speakers of Sebat Bet Gurage. They mostly adhere to Tewahedo Orthodox Christianity and Sebat Bet Gurage is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: West Gurage

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Horn of Africa Peoples
Country: Ethiopia
People Cluster: Ethio-Semitic
Primary Language(s): Sebat Bet Gurage (sgw)
Primary Religion(s): Tewahedo Orthodox Christianity
Population: 3,075,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG042740
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Pray for the West Gurage of Ethiopia

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: Tewahedo Orthodox Christianity
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

45%
%
Tewahedo Orthodox Christi… Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Sebat Bet Gurage
Language Family: Afro-Asiatic

100%
%
Sebat Bet Gurage Speakers

Media Resources in Sebat Bet Gurage:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

2 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Sebat Bet Gurage:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
1982 Bible Society of Ethiopia✓✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Sebat Bet Gurage bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the West Gurage:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the West Gurage of Ethiopia

But he said, "What is impossible with man is possible with God."
readLuke 18:27

Praise God that He is the God of impossible things and that He is able to save even those who seem beyond hope.

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
readIsaiah 43:19

Pray that the lost will see the new thing God can do in their lives and trust in His plan and purpose for them.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
readIsaiah 26:3

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, the Lord will keep them in perfect peace as they trust in Him.

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.

Gurage, West Across Countries (ROP3 - 110758) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
West GuragePG042740West GurageEthiopia3,075,000Unengaged and UnreachedSebat Bet GurageTewahedo Orthodox Christianity

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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