Em Footprints of the Forest (1999, p. 45-46), Bill Balée apresenta um relato do decréscimo populacional dos Krẽjê, explicando que
"in 1981 there was only one surviving Kren-Yê who still knew the indigenous language — she died in 1983. She had two younger male kinsmen, now married to Brazilian women but who consider themselves Kren-Yê and who live within the jurisdiction of Post Canindé. Neither speaks Kren-Yê and both know more Ka'apor and Tembé language and lore than the Kren-yê equivalents. In a way, demographic and cultural decline for the Kren-Yê between 1915 and 1990 was virtually complete."
O fato de que seus descendentes ainda se identifiquem como Krẽjê talvez explique informações conflitantes quanto à sobrevivência da língua (que o Ethnologue lista como "nearly extinct"), mas certamente não há falantes.