The Southern Yemeni Arabs of Yemen

The Southern Yemeni Arabs of Yemen, numbering approximately 12,190,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Hadhrami Arab people of an ancient South Arabian kingdom that flourished on the incense trade route linking Arabia, Mesopotamia, East Africa, and Rome until its conquest by Saba in the third century AD, later renowned for a far-reaching diaspora. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Arab, Southern Yemeni

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Arab Peoples
Country: Yemen
People Cluster: Arab, Yemeni
Primary Language(s): Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic (acq)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 12,190,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, Dispersed CP Activity
People Group ID: PG012274
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Southern Yemeni Arabs of Yemen

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: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

95%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic
Language Family: Afro-Asiatic

100%
%
Arabic, Ta’izzi-Adeni Speakers

Media Resources in Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

2 films

Bible Resources in Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Southern Yemeni Arabs 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 Southern Yemeni Arabs:
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

Pray specifically for the Southern Yemeni Arabs of Yemen

He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him
readLuke 10:34

Pray that the lost among them will experience the kind of compassion Jesus taught His followers to show others, and that they will trust in Him because He is the one who brings healing to the broken and lost.

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed"
readGalatians 3:8

Ask the Lord to fulfill His promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed by advancing the gospel to every people group who has yet to receive it.

Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
readMark 10:29-30

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will know that when they make sacrifices to follow Jesus, He is there with them and will bless them abundantly in this life and in the life to come.

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.
readPsalm 96:4

Pray that God will raise up believers to declare His glory among the lost, so that they may know that He is great and greatly to be praised, that He is exalted above all gods.

Arab, Yemeni Across Countries (ROP3 - 109729) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

13 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Southern Yemeni ArabsSouthern Yemeni ArabsYemen12,190,000Engaged yet UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsEgypt1,080,000Engaged yet UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsSaudi Arabia259,000Unengaged and UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsUnited Arab Emirates214,000Unengaged and UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Djiboutian ArabsDjiboutian ArabsDjibouti80,500Unengaged and UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicShia Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsEritrea71,000Unengaged and UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsMadagascar63,500Engaged yet UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsUnited States55,000Engaged yet UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicShia Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsEthiopia40,000Unengaged and UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsSudan35,000Unengaged and UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsOman25,500Unengaged and UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Yemeni ArabsYemeni ArabsKuwait8,500Unengaged and UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam
Yemini ArabsYemini ArabsCanada7,100Engaged yet UnreachedTa'izzi-Adeni ArabicSunni Islam

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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