Who and where are “Frontier People Groups”?

By Darrell Dorr

Frontier Ventures seeks to accelerate breakthroughs among the least reached, seeing "movements to Jesus expressing the fullness of the Kingdom of God within every people." In other words, our focus is on unreached peoples, among whom Jesus movements are not yet present. Yet, as recent articles explain, in recent years our task has become more difficult, partly because the drift of frontier mission demographics (by the worldwide Body of Christ) has inadvertently obscured the least reached.

That drift has prompted some researchers and writers to propose a new term, "Frontier People Groups", for the subset of unreached peoples with less than 0.1% Christians of any kind, and to create a new prayer guide called The Thirty One Largest Frontier People Groups that turns the spotlight on the 31 largest Frontier People Groups. The intent is to stimulate wider recognition of those peoples who are most neglected and least reached. We applaud this initiative.

One quarter of the world's population is found in Frontier People Groups. The 31 largest Frontier People Groups (each over 10 million in population) contain half the population of all Frontier People Groups.

By including an additional 365 large Frontier People Groups (each between 500K and 10 million in population) for a total of 396 groups, the Body of Christ worldwide can cover 88% (7/8ths) of the population of all Frontier People Groups in prayer.

This approach provides further clarity in frontier mission…and reinforces the significance of South Asian peoples in particular. May God utilize this approach to bring an abundance of biblical blessing to all 396 of these peoples.

Strategic Prayer for the 31: Download your free prayer guide.

To download, go to Joshua Project, Scroll down and click on the 31 Frontier Peoples Booklet on the bottom right for a PDF or printable version. Also available through William Carey Library.

​Researchers and Writers of The Thirty One Largest Frontier People Groups Prayer Resource:

the 24:14 Coalition, 24:14 Inherit the Nations, Ethnê Movement, Fellowship of Prayer Strategists, Frontier Ventures, Global Prayer Digest, International Orality Network, International Prayer Connect, International Prayer Council, Joshua Project, Light of the World Prayer Center, Mission Network, MultMove, The Seed Company/Pray for Zero, and Others.