Ndebele speaking countries
Ndebele is one out of eleven official languages in South Africa and is spoken in 2 other countries as monther tongue by a part of the population.As a percentage of the total population, the largest share of around 16 percent is in Zimbabwe. A total of about 3.9 million people worldwide speak Ndebele as their mother tongue.
| Country | Region | Official language | Distribution | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zimbabwe | Eastern Africa | no | 16.2 % | 2,591,000 |
| South Africa | Southern Africa | yes | 2.1 % | 1,247,000 |
| Botswana | Southern Africa | no | 1.3 % | 34,000 |
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 unlikely to be listed here.