World Language Map

Languages spoken in South Africa

31 living languages are mapped in South Africa. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is English (31% of the population). They belong to 5 language families, the largest being Atlantic-Congo (18 languages).

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of South Africa at a glance

  • 31living languages
  • 5language families
  • 60.4 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 11with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in South Africa. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in South Africa

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
EnglishIndo-European31%18,737,206Not endangered
ZuluAtlantic-Congo24%14,506,224Not endangered
XhosaAtlantic-Congo18%10,879,668Not endangered
AfrikaansIndo-European13%7,857,538Not endangered
PediAtlantic-Congo9.4%5,681,604Not endangered
TswanaAtlantic-Congo8.2%4,956,293Not endangered
Southern SothoAtlantic-Congo7.9%4,774,965Not endangered
TsongaAtlantic-Congo4.4%2,659,474Not endangered
SwatiAtlantic-Congo2.7%1,631,950Not endangered
VendaAtlantic-Congo2.3%1,390,180Not endangered
HindiIndo-European2%1,208,852Not endangered
Archaic AngloromaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
BirwaAtlantic-CongoThreatened
Eastern YiddishIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Hai//om-AkhoeKhoe-KwadiNot endangered
KalangaAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
KgalagadiAtlantic-CongoThreatened
KxoeKhoe-KwadiShifting
Nama (Namibia)Khoe-KwadiThreatened
North-Central JuKxaThreatened
N||ngTuuNearly extinct
OorlamsIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
PhuthiAtlantic-CongoThreatened
RongaAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
ShonaAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
Sumayela NdebeleAtlantic-CongoThreatened
TswaAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
TswapongAtlantic-CongoShifting
West !XoonTuuThreatened
XiriKhoe-KwadiNearly extinct
Zimbabwean NdebeleAtlantic-CongoNot endangered

Read more: where is English spoken?

Language families in South Africa

About these numbers

The list of languages in South Africa comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in South Africa

How many languages are spoken in South Africa?

31 living languages are mapped in South Africa, from 5 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in South Africa?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, English is spoken by 31% of the population, about 18,737,206 people, followed by Zulu (24%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in South Africa?

Atlantic-Congo (18 languages), Indo-European (6 languages), Khoe-Kwadi (4 languages), Tuu (2 languages) and Kxa (1 language).

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