{"id":724160,"date":"2023-10-10T16:59:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=724160"},"modified":"2023-10-11T16:14:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T14:14:22","slug":"these-are-the-most-spoken-languages-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/724160\/these-are-the-most-spoken-languages-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"These are the most spoken languages in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s most spoken language is isiZulu, data from the 2022 census shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA released a new census after 11 years of waiting and significant delays due to the COVID-19 outbreak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The census for 2022 shows that South Africa’s population ballooned between 2011 and 2022, with the population increasing from 51.7 million to 62 million in 2022. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The census also looks at various other data points, such as the most spoken languages in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is uniquely positioned as it has 12 official languages, with the primary language spoken by households varying significantly per province. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Stats SA, isiZulu is the language spoken most often in South African households, with 24.4% (15.13 million) of the population speaking the language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said that isiZulu is the primary language spoken in KwaZulu-Natal and in parts of Mpumalanga and the Free State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

isiXhosa is in second place, with 16.3% (10.11 million) of the population, and speakers are mainly in the Eastern Cape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afrikaans is in third place with 10.06% (6.57 million) and is mainly spoken in the Western Cape and Northern Cape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sepedi, which is mainly spoken in the majority of Limpopo, is in fourth, with 10.0% (6.2 million) of the nation’s population mainly speaking the language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although English is the primary language of business in the world, only 8.7% (5.39 million) of the population use it as their primary form of communication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, Sesotho (7.8%) and Siswati (2.8%) are widely spoken in areas close to the borders of Lesotho and Eswatini. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, the new 12th official language of South Africa is only the primary form of communication for 0.02% (12,400) of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it should be noted that Stats SA only looks at the primary language spoken and not fluency, so the official number of people who can speak a language may, in fact, be higher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is the population distribution by language spoken most often in the household. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language<\/strong><\/td>% of population <\/strong><\/td>Population <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
isiZulu<\/td>24.4%<\/td>15.13 million<\/td><\/tr>
isiXhosa<\/td>16.3%<\/td>10.11 million<\/td><\/tr>
Afrikaans <\/td>10.6%<\/td>6.57 million<\/td><\/tr>
Sepedi <\/td>10.0%<\/td>6.20 million<\/td><\/tr>
English<\/td>8.7%<\/td>5.39 million<\/td><\/tr>
Setswana<\/td>8.3%<\/td>5.15 million<\/td><\/tr>
Sesotho<\/td>7.8%<\/td>4.84 million<\/td><\/tr>
Xitsonga<\/td>4.7%<\/td>2.91 million<\/td><\/tr>
Siswati<\/td>2.8%<\/td>1.74 million<\/td><\/tr>
Tshivenda<\/td>2.5%<\/td>1.15 million<\/td><\/tr>
Ndebele<\/td>1.7%<\/td>1.05 million<\/td><\/tr>
Sign Language<\/td>0.02%<\/td>12,400 <\/td><\/tr>
Other<\/td>2.1%<\/td>1.30 million<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
\n
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Source: Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Read<\/strong>: Privacy fears over South Africa\u2019s new government surveillance laws<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stats SA has released the 2022 Census – with data on the most spoken primary language spoken by households across the country. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":711836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26,1809],"class_list":["post-724160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724160"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":724426,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724160\/revisions\/724426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}