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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
Bengali - বাংলা | Chinese (Simplified) - 中文（简体）
Chinese (Traditional) - 中文（繁體) | French - Français
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Portugese - Português | Russian - Русский
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The Northern Pashtuns of Canada

The Northern Pashtuns of Canada, numbering approximately 33,500 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are an Eastern Iranian ethnolinguistic group indigenous to southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Northern Pashto is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Pashtun

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Persian-Median Peoples
Country: Canada
People Cluster: Pashtun
Primary Language(s): Northern Pashto (pbu)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 33,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG050498
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Pray for the Northern Pashtuns of Canada

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

99%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Northern Pashto
Language Family: Indo-European

75%
%
Pashto, Northern Speakers

Media Resources in Northern Pashto:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film
MagdalenaView Film
The SaviorView Film

5 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Northern Pashto:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Revised Yousafzai Pashto Bible 2020✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Northern Pashto bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Northern Pashtuns are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Northern Pashtuns:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Pray specifically for the Northern Pashtuns of Canada

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
readRomans 1:20

As God's creation declares His glory, pray that multitudes who don't know Him will see the works of His hands and desire to know more about the Creator.

...And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
readLuke 24:47

Pray that the message of repentance and forgiveness through Jesus will reach everyone.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
readTitus 3:4-5

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ and might struggle with temptation to trust in their own works, they will remember that it is only because of God's mercy that they have been saved.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
readMatthew 9:37-38

Pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up believers to send out into His harvest field, which is ripe and ready.

Pashtun, Northern Across Countries (ROP3 - 107909) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

6 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguage ▼Religion
Northern PashtunsPG012231Northern PashtunsUnited Arab Emirates664,000Engaged yet UnreachedNorthern PashtoSunni Islam
Northern PashtunsPG024390Northern PashtunsPakistan19,250,000Engaged yet UnreachedNorthern PashtoSunni Islam
Northern PashtunsPG024585Northern PashtunsTurkiye6,700Engaged yet UnreachedNorthern PashtoSunni Islam
Eastern PashtunsPG043767Eastern PashtunsAfghanistan2,815,000Engaged yet UnreachedNorthern PashtoSunni Islam
Northern PashtunsPG047285Northern PashtunsUnited States25,000Engaged yet UnreachedNorthern PashtoSunni Islam
Northern PashtunsPG050498Northern PashtunsCanada33,500Engaged yet UnreachedNorthern PashtoSunni 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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