The Ixil of Guatemala

The Ixil of Guatemala, numbering approximately 145,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Maya people of the Cuchumatanes highlands' Ixil Triangle municipalities, subjected during the 1980s civil war to a campaign a UN-backed commission and Guatemalan courts later ruled to be genocide, which razed most Ixil villages. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Ixil is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples
Country: Guatemala
People Cluster: Central American Indigenous
Primary Language(s): Ixil (ixl)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 145,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG024727
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Ixil of Guatemala

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: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

—
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Ixil
Language Family: Mayan

86%
%
Ixil Speakers

Media Resources in Ixil:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Ixil:

Or check out the Ixil bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Ixil 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 Ixil:
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 Ixil of Guatemala

You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
readPsalm 65:9

Give thanks for God's provision in nature, and pray that those who don't know Him will recognize His hand, desire to know their Creator, and hear the truth that Jesus is the solution to the world's greatest need.

...I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
readPsalm 13:5

Ask God to bring many to trust in His unfailing love and cause their hearts to rejoice in His salvation.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
readJames 1:2-3

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will consider it pure joy when they face trials of many kinds, trusting in God's promise that the testing of their faith produces perseverance.

Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”
readPsalm 96:10

Pray for God to put in the hearts of believers to go to the lost and testify about the Lord who reigns.

Ixil, San Juan Cotzal Across Countries (ROP3 - 108608) 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.

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