Ndebele speaking countries
Ndebele is the official language in South Africa and is spoken in 2 more countries as monther tongue by a part of the population.With a share of around 16%, it is most widespread in Zimbabwe. A total of about 3.7 million people worldwide speak Ndebele as their mother tongue.
| Country | Region | Official language | Distribution | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zimbabwe | Eastern Africa | no | 16.2 % | 2,445,000 |
| South Africa | Southern Africa | yes | 2.1 % | 1,261,000 |
| Botswana | Southern Africa | no | 1.3 % | 31,000 |
Unless otherwise described in the text, this page is about native speakers - not the total number of speakers. How many people understand or speak Ndebele as a subsequently learned language is not the subject of this page. Countries where native speakers make up only a few thousand or even a few hundred people, or countries with a percentage well below 1%, are maybe not listed here.