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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Mopan Maya of Guatemala

The Mopan Maya of Guatemala, numbering approximately 8,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Maya people whose pre-colonial Peten homeland spanned the Belize-Guatemala border, forced by the British into Guatemala in the 1700s-1800s, then driven back into Belize in 1886 to escape taxation and forced labor, founding San Antonio village in 1889. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Mopán Maya is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples
Country: Guatemala
People Cluster: Maya
Primary Language(s): Mopán Maya (mop)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 8,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG024732
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Pray for the Mopan Maya 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.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

—
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Mopán Maya
Language Family: Mayan

100%
%
Maya, Mopán Speakers

Media Resources in Mopán Maya:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Mopán Maya:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2004 Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc.✓✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Mopán Maya bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Mopan Maya 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 Mopan Maya:
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 Mopan Maya of Guatemala

The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.
readPsalm 6:9

Pray that lost people will hear the gospel and place their faith in Christ, knowing that He hears their plea and accepts their prayer.

As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
readMatthew 13:23

Pray that their hearts will have good soil that receives the Word, understands it, and bears fruit for God's kingdom.

And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."
readMatthew 16:17

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will abide in Him and have assurance that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
readJohn 1:35-36

Pray for those God sends to cross cultures to share the gospel, that they might faithfully share the good news of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Maya, Mopan Across Countries (ROP3 - 106783) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

3 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress Index ▼LanguageReligion
Mopan MayaPG050487Mopan MayaCanada3,300No Longer UnreachedMopán MayaRoman Catholicism
Mopan MayaPG024732Mopan MayaGuatemala8,000No Longer UnreachedMopán MayaEthnoreligion
Mopan MayaPG016206Mopan MayaBelize16,500No Longer UnreachedMopán MayaFolk 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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