World Language Map

Where is Nigerian Pidgin spoken?

Nigerian Pidgin (pidgin) is an Indo-European language, spoken in Nigeria. It is marked on the map by a ringed point.

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  • Austronesian
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Where Nigerian Pidgin is spoken

Nigerian Pidgin is spoken in one country: Nigeria. The table gives the share of each country’s people who speak it, from Unicode CLDR, where CLDR has a figure.

CountryShare of populationEstimated speakers
Nigeria21%49,716,870

Estimated speakers are the CLDR percentage applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country, so they are rough. A country without a figure may still have speakers: it is listed because the language area, or Glottolog’s record, reaches it.

Nigerian Pidgin has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.

How many people speak Nigerian Pidgin?

Wikidata gives about 4.7 million first-language speakers (Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 26th Edition, 2020). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.

Status: Not endangered. Glottolog lists it as not endangered: it is still being passed on to children.

Where Nigerian Pidgin sits in the language family tree

Glottolog classifies Nigerian Pidgin as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.

  1. Indo-European
  2. Classical Indo-European
  3. Germanic
  4. Northwest Germanic
  5. West Germanic
  6. North Sea Germanic
  7. Anglo-Frisian
  8. Anglic
  9. Later Anglic
  10. Middle-Modern English
  11. Macro-English
  12. Guinea Coast Creole English
  13. West African Creole English
  14. Coastal Nigerian Krio
  15. Nigerian-Ghanaian Krio
  16. Nigerian Pidgin

Related languages

Other languages in the Nigerian-Ghanaian Krio group:

More about Nigerian Pidgin

Codes: ISO 639-3 pcm, Glottolog nige1257. Glottolog macroarea: Africa.

Questions about Nigerian Pidgin

Where is Nigerian Pidgin spoken?

Nigerian Pidgin is spoken in Nigeria. Unicode CLDR puts it at 21% of the population of Nigeria, which is about 49,716,870 people. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.

How many people speak Nigerian Pidgin?

Wikidata gives about 4.7 million first-language speakers (Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 26th Edition, 2020). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled.

Which language family is Nigerian Pidgin in?

Glottolog places Nigerian Pidgin in the Indo-European family, in the branch Classical Indo-European, Germanic, Northwest Germanic, West Germanic, North Sea Germanic, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic, Later Anglic, Middle-Modern English, Macro-English, Guinea Coast Creole English, West African Creole English, Coastal Nigerian Krio and Nigerian-Ghanaian Krio.

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