Joshua Project 2000
Unreached Peoples Untargeted List Update
January 1999

Information Systems Manager
AD2000 & Beyond Movement

Joshua Project 2000 Untargeted List

Click here to view the latest update<> of the untargeted list.

The following pages list the approximately 250 peoples from the Joshua Project 2000 Unreached Peoples List that are currently considered untargeted. Untargeted means that there is no reported on-site church planting effort and no mission organization has committed itself to church planting in the next 2 to 3 years among this people. This list is based on the data that has been reported to the AD2000 & Beyond Movement International Office. Because of security reasons limiting the availability of information, and general gaps in our data, it is quite likely that some of the peoples on this list are actually targeted for future church planting or already have on-site teams. Your help is needed to make this list as accurate as possible. If you are aware of inaccuracies, updates or additional ministry activities, please e-mail with the update. All suggestions will be given serious consideration if data sources are included.

What are the criteria for the Joshua Project 2000 list?

The Joshua Project 2000 peoples are "country-distinct" peoples each over 10,000 in population that were chosen, by their ethno-linguistic distinction and their status of being less than 2% Evangelical and less than 5% Christian adherents. The list is sorted by Country name and then by People name. Cultural, social and religious distinctions are not included in this list. There are currently around 1600 peoples on the active list. A current copy of the Joshua Project 2000 list is downloadable from the Internet at: www.ad2000.org/peoples/index.htm.<> A printed version is also available from the AD2000 & Beyond Movement International Office . (The AD2000 International Office will be closing early in 2001. Click here for more information.)<>

What is the source of the Joshua Project 2000 list?

The Joshua Project 2000 list was compiled in 1994 and 1995 by combining people group data from SIL / Wycliffe, International Mission Board-Southern Baptist, Operation World and the Adopt-A-People Clearinghouse. A lowest common denominator was used meaning a group had to be on all four lists to be considered part of the Joshua Project 2000 list. An Editorial Committee was established with representatives from each of the organizations that provided the initial data. The list was originally released in December 1995 and has been continually updated since then.

How was the ministry activity data compiled?

In the spring of 1996 a ministry survey was sent to approximately 3,000 international mission agencies. The goal of this survey was to measure exposure to the Gospel; to answer the question what ministry activity has occurred among this people? In the spring of 1998 a second survey was sent to a similar audience. The purpose of this second survey was to continue to update the church planting status as well as to measure the response to the Gospel. The main question the second survey tried to address was what has been the response to the Gospel among this people? Is there an established indigenous church? Over 45,000 pieces of information regarding ministry activity among the Joshua Project 2000 peoples were collected in response to these two surveys and other information gathering. The untargeted list on the following pages are the peoples that do not have a reported church planting team on-site and no mission organization has indicated that they have plans to begin ministry in the next several years.

Are changes still being made to the Joshua Project 2000 list?

One of the commitments of the AD2000 & Beyond Movement is to make this a dynamic list constantly updated to reflect the most accurate possible picture of the least evangelized peoples. Many new peoples have been added to the original list based on better field information showing that they meet the criteria to be on the list. Other peoples have been removed from the original list because further research showed they were ethno-cultural rather than ethno-linguistic or the percentages of Evangelicals or Christians were higher than originally reported.

Since the AD2000 & Beyond Movement International Office took over administrating the Joshua Project 2000 list an average of over 200 changes are made to the list each month. Since its origin over 4500 updates have been made to the Joshua Project 2000 list. Most of this is based on field input and updates from other researchers. The kinds of things that are being updated are population, people and language names, percentage of Evangelicals and Adherents, availability of the Scriptures etc.

What are the future plans for Joshua Project 2000?

As the picture grows increasingly clear for those groups over 10,000 in population, the hope is to expand the Joshua Project 2000 list to all peoples regardless of size. Through a growing network of worldwide contacts and researchers it is expected that this list will undergo continual refinement. It is hoped that the Joshua Project 2000 list can be integrated together with several of the other available major people group information sets to provide a complete ethno-linguistic peoples picture that many mission organizations would use and agree upon as a information baseline.

How can you be involved?

This list of untargeted represents some of the most spiritually needy peoples in the world. First and foremost pray for the penetration of the Gospel into these peoples. Keep this list in your Bible as a reminder to pray for those peoples who sit in darkness. Encourage your church to adopt one of these untargeted peoples. Send this list to your denomination leaders or mission organization you are connected with and ask them to beginning a new church planting effort among one of these untargeted groups. Ask the Lord if you yourself might be one of the missionaries that are needed to plant churches among these groups. Register your adoption with the AD2000 & Beyond Movement. Send any updates and corrections you are aware of to: AD2000 & Beyond Movement International Office, 2860 S. Circle Drive, Suite 2112, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 USA or email them to (The AD2000 International Office will be closing early in 2001. Click here for more information.)<>

Column 1 = People name, alternate name in parenthesis ()
Column 2 = Language name
Column 3 = Population of that people in that country

Total Groups: 245

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