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The Canari Highland Quichua of Ecuador

The Canari Highland Quichua of Ecuador, numbering approximately 174,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an Andean people of southern Ecuador's Azuay and Canar highlands with over 3,000 years of settlement, noted for fine goldwork and stone architecture, who resisted Inca conquest until defeat in the 1470s and later allied with the Spanish against the Inca. They mostly adhere to Folk Catholicism and Cañar Highland Quichua is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Quichua, Canari Highland

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples
Country: Ecuador
People Cluster: Quechua
Primary Language(s): Cañar Highland Quichua (qxr)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Catholicism
Population: 174,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG017461
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Pray for the Canari Highland Quichua of Ecuador

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: Folk Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

98%
%
Folk Catholicism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Cañar Highland Quichua
Language Family: Quechuan

40%
%
Quichua, Cañar Highland Speakers

Media Resources in Cañar Highland Quichua:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Cañar Highland Quichua:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Sociedades Bíblicas Unidas de Ecuador 2010✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Cañar Highland Quichua bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Canari Highland Quichua 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 Canari Highland Quichua:
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 Canari Highland Quichua of Ecuador

That they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.
readActs 17:27

Pray that those who don't yet know Christ will search diligently for God and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
readGenesis 2:7

Pray that Christians will be able to share the hope of Christ with suffering people and that He will breathe new life into their souls.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
readJohn 10:29

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will rejoice as they remember that they can never lose their salvation

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
readLuke 10:1

Ask God to raise up, send out, and sustain Christians who can go together to share the good news of Jesus with those who need it.

Quichua, Canar Highland Across Countries (ROP3 - 101871) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountry ▼PopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Canari Highland QuichuaPG017461Canari Highland QuichuaEcuador174,000No Longer UnreachedCañar Highland QuichuaFolk Catholicism

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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