The Papua New Guineans of Australia

The Papua New Guineans of Australia, numbering approximately 24,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a diverse Papua New Guinean diaspora shaped by longstanding movement between neighboring PNG and Australia, with early migration tied to Queensland labor and later settlement increasing after the 1960s. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Tok Pisin is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Neo-Melanesian Papuan

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Pacific Islander Peoples
Country: Australia
People Cluster: New Guinea
Primary Language(s): Tok Pisin (tpi)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 24,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG008015

Pray for the Papua New Guineans of Australia

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: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

32%
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Tok Pisin
Language Family: Indo-European

100%
%
Tok Pisin Speakers

Media Resources in Tok Pisin:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Tok Pisin:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
1989 Bible Society of Papua New Guinea✓✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Tok Pisin bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Papua New Guineans 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 Papua New Guineans:
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 Papua New Guineans of Australia

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
readEphesians 2:4-5

Pray that those who have not yet received new life will be made alive together with Christ, saved by grace and raised up with Him to newness of life.

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
readPsalm 96:9

Pray that many who do not yet know Jesus will come to know Him and worship Him in the splendor of His holiness.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
readJohn 10:28

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have assurance of eternal life, knowing that no one can snatch them out of the loving hand of Jesus.

And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
readColossians 1:20

As believers cross cultures to tell others about Jesus, praise God for allowing them to be a part of His reconciling all things to Himself, asking Him to help them remember their role in His beautiful plan of salvation for others.

Papua New Guinean Across Countries (ROP3 - 107203) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

4 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguage ▼Religion
Papua New GuineansPapua New GuineansAustralia24,000No Longer UnreachedTok PisinProtestantism
Neo-Melanesian PapuansNeo-Melanesian PapuansPapua New Guinea233,000No Longer UnreachedTok PisinProtestantism
Neo-Melanesian PapuansNeo-Melanesian PapuansSolomon Islands7,900No Longer UnreachedTok PisinProtestantism
MelanesiansMelanesiansUnited States1,600No Longer UnreachedTok PisinProtestantism

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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