The Bantoanon of Philippines

The Bantoanon of Philippines, numbering approximately 91,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are described as an ethnolinguistic community of the Philippines They are an Indigenous people, with Bantuanon (Banton) as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Filipino Tribal people cluster of the Malay Peoples. Their primary religion is Roman Catholicism. They primarily speak Bantoanon.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Bantuanon

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Philippines
People Cluster: Filipino Tribal
Primary Language(s): Bantoanon (bno)
Primary Religion(s): Roman Catholicism
Population: 91,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG007636
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Pray for the Bantoanon of Philippines

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%
%

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Bantoanon
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%

Media Resources in Bantoanon:

Films:

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Bible Resources in Bantoanon:

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Or check out the Bantoanon bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 2), 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): Marginally Reached People Group, (LPI: 4), 3% to 6% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical (GSEC: 4), this people group is greater than or equal to 2% evangelical

Next steps for the Bantoanon:
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

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Bantoanon are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Bantoanon:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Bantoanon 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 Bantoanon:
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 Bantoanon of Philippines

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
read1 Chronicles 16:26

Pray that those among them who are lost and seeking after worthless idols will have the opportunity to hear and respond to the good news, seeing that Jesus is better than any idol.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.
readPsalm 127:3

Pray that God will bless this generation of children, that they will come to know Jesus early in life and follow Him always.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
readPhilippians 3:20-21

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will remember their citizenship is in heaven.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
read1 Corinthians 15:10–11

Pray that God's people will preach the message of Jesus' death and resurrection and that it will spread among the lost through the selfless witness of believers.

Bantuanon Across Countries (ROP3 - 101018) reported in the following countries:

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 Definitions page.

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