The Khao of Vietnam

The Khao of Vietnam, numbering approximately 18,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an Austroasiatic people of northwestern Vietnam concentrated in Son La and Dien Bien provinces near the Ma River, whose Khao language belongs to the Khmuic group. They mostly adhere to Animism and Khao is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Southeast Asian Peoples
Country: Vietnam
People Cluster: Mon-Khmer
Primary Language(s): Khao (xao)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 18,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG011159
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Khao of Vietnam

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: Animism
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

95%
%
Animism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Khao
Language Family: Bookkeeping

100%
%
Khao Speakers

Media Resources in Khao:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Khao:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Khao bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Khao 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 Khao:
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 Khao of Vietnam

These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self- made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
readColossians 2:23

Pray for those without Christ, that they will see the emptiness of human traditions and turn to the truth and grace found in Jesus.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise).
readEphesians 6:1-2

Pray that God will bring young men and women to faith in Jesus and that the fruit of their faith will be a powerful testimony as they honor their parents.

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.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
readPsalm 139:14

Praise God for His creativity and power, and pray that He will raise up men and women from among them who are in awe of all He has done and want to go share the hope of Christ with others.

Khao Across Countries (ROP3 - 104905) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

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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