The Kedayan of Malaysia

The Kedayan of Malaysia, numbering approximately 91,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are an Indigenous Bornean community of Sabah, Sarawak, and Labuan whose identity emerged within the Brunei cultural sphere and is distinguished by a closely related Malayic language and longstanding agricultural traditions. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Brunei is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Kedayan

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Malaysia
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Brunei (kxd)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 91,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG019336
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Kedayan of Malaysia

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

85%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Brunei
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%
Brunei Speakers

Media Resources in Brunei:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Brunei:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Brunei bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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 Kedayan:
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 Kedayan of Malaysia

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
readPsalm 51:1

Give thanks to God that He is able to forgive all the sins people might commit, and pray that many who don't yet know this will hear the good news and turn to Him for mercy.

I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
readPsalm 34:4

Pray for each who becomes a child of God to share the hope of eternity with family and friends.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
readRomans 6:4

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, God will lead those who might hesitate in getting baptized to trust Him as they obey His command, even when obedience is hard.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
read1 Corinthians 15:10–11

Pray that God's people will preach the message of Jesus' death and resurrection and that it will spread among the lost through the selfless witness of believers.

Brunei-Kadaian Across Countries (ROP3 - 101679) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

4 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountry ▲PopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Brunei MalaysBrunei MalaysBrunei326,000Engaged yet UnreachedBruneiSunni Islam
BruneiBruneiCanada5,400Unengaged and UnreachedBruneiSunni Islam
KedayanKedayanMalaysia91,000Unengaged and UnreachedBruneiSunni Islam
Brunei-KadayanBrunei-KadayanUnited States750Unengaged and UnreachedBruneiSunni 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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