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The Watiwa of Papua New Guinea

The Watiwa of Papua New Guinea, numbering approximately 1,100 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an indigenous ethnic group of Papua New Guinea. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Watiwa is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Pacific Islander Peoples
Country: Papua New Guinea
People Cluster: New Guinea
Primary Language(s): Watiwa (wtf)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 1,100
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 5% or Greater but Less than 10% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG010613
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Pray for the Watiwa of Papua New Guinea

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

44%
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Watiwa
Language Family: Nuclear Trans New Guinea

65%
%
Watiwa Speakers

Media Resources in Watiwa:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Watiwa:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Watiwa bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Watiwa 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 Watiwa:
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 Watiwa of Papua New Guinea

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
read1 Timothy 6:9

Pray for those, rich and poor, who have put their trust in worldly things, and ask that they will be honest with themselves, acknowledge their need for God and turn to Him.

Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!
readPsalm 150:2

Pray for the gospel to advance among those who are living in darkness. Pray that they will come to know Jesus and praise Him for all that He has done.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
readRevelation 21:4

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ and walk through challenges, they will find comfort in God's promise of a beautiful future when there is no pain or suffering for those who belong to Christ.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
readPsalm 23:6

Ask God to raise up believers who will share the hope that, for those who trust in Christ, goodness and love will follow them all the days of their lives, and they will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Watiwa Across Countries (ROP3 - 110719) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountry ▼PopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
WatiwaPG010613WatiwaPapua New Guinea1,100No Longer UnreachedWatiwaProtestantism

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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