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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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Chinese (Traditional) - 中文（繁體) | French - Français
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Yao of Tanzania

The Yao of Tanzania, numbering approximately 1,045,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are described as a major Bantu ethnolinguistic group indigenous to the southern coastal area of Lake Malawi in Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania They are an Indigenous people, with Yao (Bantu) as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Bantu, Makua-Yao people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples. Their primary religion is Sunni Islam. They primarily speak Yao.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Tanzania
People Cluster: Bantu, Makua-Yao
Primary Language(s): Yao (yao)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 1,045,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG015062
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Pray for the Yao of Tanzania

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.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

93%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Yao
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Yao Speakers

Media Resources in Yao:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

3 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Yao:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2008 Bible Society of Malawi✓✓
PBT Version✓✓✓

2 entries

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Yao bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), 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): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Yao:
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

Pray specifically for the Yao of Tanzania

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
readLuke 15:7

Pray that God will convict the lost of their sin, give them an urgency to run to Him for forgiveness, and feel His welcoming arms around them when they turn to Him.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
readJohn 6:35

Pray that the lost will come to Jesus and believe in Him, never to hunger or thirst again.

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.

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.

Yao Across Countries (ROP3 - 110980) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

4 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
YaoPG015343YaoMalawi1,745,000Engaged yet UnreachedYaoSunni Islam
YaoPG015062YaoTanzania1,045,000Unengaged and UnreachedYaoSunni Islam
YaoPG015426YaoMozambique670,000Engaged yet UnreachedYaoSunni Islam
YaoPG015686YaoZimbabwe66,500Engaged yet UnreachedYaoSunni 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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