Top 14 languages spoken in Africa

Africa is a huge continent with a total population of 1.3 billion (United Nations estimates, 2019). This number is equivalent to 16.72% of the total world population.People of Africa speak about 2,000 languages, not fixed as some languages are still being discovered and some are being eliminated. South Africa on its own has 11 official languages, recorded as the largest number of official languages –on a national level. African Languages are categorized into five major language families including Afroasiatic, Austronesian, Indo-European, Niger–Congo (Bantu and non-Bantu) and Nilo-Saharan languages.

1. Afroasiatic languages

Spoken mainly in North Africa, the Horn of Africa and parts of the Sahel. Afroasiatic languages are counted for 375 languages spoken by over 500 million people.
The most widely spoken Afroasiatic languages include:

- Arabic (Semitic);
- Somali (Cushitic);
- Berber (Berber);
- Hausa (Chadic);
- Amharic (Semitic); and
- Oromo (Cushitic).

2. Austronesian languages

Are widely spoken throughout Madagascar. Some estimates say Austronesian languages include more than 1,000 languages.

3. Indo-European languages

Indo-European languages - Afrikaans, English, German, and Dutch - are spoken in South Africa and Namibia, but mostly used in South Africa. In Botswana and Zimbabwe it is a minority language of roughly several ten thousand people. The estimate Afrikaans’ speakers are 15 to 20 million people.

4. Niger–Congo languages (Bantu and non-Bantu)

Spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Southern Africa and considered the largest language family spoken in West Africa. Includes the languages: Swahili, Zulu, Fula, Yoruba, Igbo, Ashanti and Ewe language.

5. Nilo-Saharan languages

Tonal languages are spoken throughout Tanzania, Sudan, Chad, Nigeria, Congo and Mali.
Nilo-Saharan languages contain a hundred different languages including Kanuri, Fur, Songhay, Nobiin, Luo, Dinka and Maasai.

How many languages are spoken in Africa?

1. Arabic:

Arabic Language is the first most spoken language in Africa with a number of speakers that is equivalent to 150 million people (out of 420 million World Wide). It’s a bidirectional language that is related to the Afroasiatic language family but originated from Asia. Arabic is widely spoken in Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania (Zanzibar), Tunisia and other countries that are outside Africa.
Also read: 5 Facts about The Arabic Language

2. Swahili ('kiswɑˈhili)

Swahili, or Kiswahili as its people call it, is the most spoken African language after Arabic. It’s a Bantu language that was written in Arabic script, but now is written in Latin script. Swahili is spoken widely in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Somalia and South Africa by about 150 million speakers around the world. Swahili is used as a lingua franca throughout East Africa.

3. French:

More than 270 million people speak French around the world, and 80% of those speakers are African people. French is spoken in the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, West and Central Africa, and Djibouti.

4. Hausa:

There are 63 million Hausa speakers located in Nigeria, Ghana, and Niger. Hausa is used as a lingua franca by non-native speakers in some areas of Northern Nigeria, Southern Niger, West Africa (Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Ivory Coast) and parts of Sudan.

5. Oromo

Oromo is an Afroasiatic language that is native to the Ethiopian state of Oromia, Harar and Dire Dawa region, spoken by the Oromo people and the Horn of Africa. It’s one of the most widely spoken languages of Africa, after Arabic, French, Swahili, and Hausa. It’s also widely spoken in Ethiopia.
Oromo speakers are about 35 million people and it’s divided into four main languages:

- Western Oromo (Maca)
- Shewa (Tuulama, Arsi)
- Eastern Oromo (Harar)
- Southern Oromo (Ajuran, Borana, Gabra, Garreh, Munyo, Orma, Sakuye, Waata)

6. Yoruba

Yoruba is commonly used in African countries such as Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, with about 40 million speakers in Africa. It has a variety of dialects including:

- North-West Yoruba (NWY)
- North-East Yoruba (NEY)
- Central Yoruba (CY)
- South-East Yoruba (SEY)
- South-West Yoruba (SWY)

Yoruba used to be written in Arabic script, but now it’s written in Latin script, but some letters are not used in the language.

7. Portuguese

The speakers of Portuguese around the world is about 250 million people, 30 million of them are Africans. It is commonly taught in schools or where it has been introduced as an option in Zambia, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Namibia, Eswatini (Swaziland), South Africa, Ivory Coast, and Mauritius. It’s also spoken in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe.
Portuguese is a lingua franca in bordering and multilingual regions, such as Angola and Namibia.

8. Amharic

Amharic is one of the Ethiopian Semitic left-to-right languages under the Afroasiatic languages, spoken by 22 million people. Amharas speak it as a first language and it’s used as a lingua franca by other populations in some cities of Ethiopia. Amharic is the second-most commonly spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic. It’s considered a holy language by the Rastafari religion and is widely used among its followers worldwide.

9. Malagasy

An Austronesian language mainly used as the first language of Madagascar. Malagasy speakers are about 25 million people.

10. Berber

Berber languages have been marginalized that only a few people speak it. French and Arabic are adopted instead by the Berber world as working languages. However, a branch of the Berber languages called “Tuareg” is still used a lingua franca in some parts of the Sahara Desert, especially in Algeria, Mali, Niger, and Libya. “Tamazight”, another branch, is an official language of Morocco and Algeria.

11. Zulu (isiZulu)

Among the variety of languages used in South Africa, Zulu (Niger–Congo language) is the most widely spoken language which is used by 24% of the population, 28 million speakers, understood by over 50% of South African people.

12. Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a Low Franconian West Germanic language that emerged from Dutch, spoken mainly in South Africa and Namibia as the primary lingua franca. Afrikaan's native speakers are around 23 million, including 7 million native speakers. Afrikaans speakers are also found in Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Germany, Lesotho, Malawi, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

13. English

English is the world’s lingua franca. About 1.5 billion people around the world speak English whether as a first language or a second language. In Africa, 700 million people speak English, mainly in Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.

14. Xhosa:

Xhosa, also spelt isiXhosa, is a Niger–Congo language spoken in South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is a Bantu language with click sounds. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a second language in South Africa, making a total number of 19,200,000 speakers.

Check this relevant topic: Understanding the Challenges of Translating African Languages

In the following table, you’ll find the most spoken languages in Africa in more details:

Language	Family	Speakers Around the World	Speaking Countries in Africa
Arabic	Afroasiatic	420,000,000	Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania (Zanzibar), Tunisia
Swahili	Niger–Congo	150,000,000	Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, DR of Congo
French	Indo-European	300,000,000	The region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, West and Central Africa, Djibouti.
Hausa	Afroasiatic	63,000,000	Nigeria, Ghana, Niger
Oromo	Afroasiatic	35,000,000	Ethiopia
Yoruba	Niger–Congo	40,000,000	Nigeria, Benin, Togo
Igbo	Niger–Congo	27,000,000	Nigeria
Fulani	Niger–Congo	25,000,000	Senegal
Amharic	Afroasiatic	22,000,000	Ethiopia
Malagasy	Austronesian	18,000,000	Madagascar
Somali	Afroasiatic	16,600,000	Somalia, Djibouti
Berber	Afroasiatic	16,000,000	Morocco, Algeria
Portuguese	Indo-European	250,000,000	Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe
Akan	Niger–Congo	11,000,000	Ghana
Zulu	Niger–Congo	28,000,000	South Africa
Kinyarwanda	Niger–Congo	9,800,000	Rwanda
Chewa	Niger–Congo	12,000,000	Malawi, Zimbabwe
Kirundi	Niger–Congo	8,800,000	Burundi
Xhosa	Niger–Congo	19,200,000	South Africa, Zimbabwe
Mossi	Niger–Congo	7,900,000	Burkina Faso
Afrikaans	Indo-European	23,000,000	Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Shona	Niger–Congo	14,200,000	Zimbabwe
Tigrinya	Afroasiatic	7,000,000	Eritrea, Ethiopia
Gikuyu (Kikuyu)	Niger–Congo	6,600,000	Kenya
English	Indo-European	1,500,000,000	Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Ethiopia
Tshiluba (Luba-Kasai language)	Niger–Congo	6,300,000	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Umbundu	Niger–Congo	9,500,000	Angola
Tsonga (Xitsonga)	Niger–Congo	8,900,000	South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique
Sesotho	Niger–Congo	13,500,000	Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Kongo	Niger–Congo	11,500,000	Angola, Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo
Lingala	Niger–Congo	40,000,000	Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo
Luganda	Niger-Congo	16,000,000	Uganda
Spanish	Indo-European	477,000,000	Equatorial Guinea, Spain (Ceuta, Melilla, Canary islands), Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Morocco

Africa is a rich continent, not only with languages but also with cultures, music, traditions, colors, etc. This makes it a potential region for more companies and investments to make money.
If you’re targeting an African country and need to localize your products into African languages, we definitely can help!