Popularity ranking · South Africa

The 100 most popular Languages in South Africa

This curated ranking covers the 100 largest languages in South Africa, ordered by estimated audience size from Rascasse's anonymized search-behavior signals. Out of 211 languages tracked in South Africa, the 100 ranked here account for the largest measured audience reach. Zulu language, Xhosa language and Northern Sotho language lead the list with a combined estimated audience of 9M people. Across all 100 entries the average audience size is 286k, and the largest, Zulu language, reaches around 3.1M people in South Africa. Audience size is the estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with each language, derived from search demand signals. Rankings reflect search-behavior signals collected across South Africa and are refreshed weekly.

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How to read this list

Rank

Position in the Top 100, sorted by audience size from largest to smallest. Updated weekly.

Audience size

Estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with this audience, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals.

Country share

Share of the global audience that is active in South Africa. A higher value means the audience is more locally concentrated here.

Avg age

Average age in years across the people who engage with this audience in South Africa, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals. A dash means demographic data is not yet available.

Female share

Share of women among the people who engage with this audience in South Africa. 50% is gender-balanced; values above mean female-skewed, below mean male-skewed.

Ranking

Rank Audience Audience size Avg age Female share Subtype
26 Korean language 157k 30.6 57.9% Language
27 Greek language 151k 37.7 60.3% Language
28 Russian language 144k 37.9 44.6% Language
29 Assamese language 142k 43.3 65.7% Language
30 Turkish language 139k 36.4 63.6% Language
31 Malay language 131k 37.8 54.1% Language
32 Punjabi language 129k 38.3 59.0% Language
33 Sanskrit 124k 40.0 60.2% Language
34 Shona language 119k 35.9 38.6% Language
35 Persian language 114k 39.4 56.2% Language
36 Modern Standard Arabic 105k 42.3 51.6% Language
37 Gujarati language 104k 44.2 58.1% Language
38 German language 100k 37.5 62.8% Language
39 Valencian 95k 44.0 60.3% Language
40 Hindustani language 82k 37.8 43.5% Language
41 Yoruba language 79k 37.6 36.6% Language
42 Kannada language 78k 43.3 66.3% Language
43 Tagalog language 75k 35.8 53.8% Language
44 Indonesian language 71k 35.5 50.0% Language
45 Marathi language 70k 41.7 61.3% Language
46 Telugu language 70k 39.8 59.1% Language
47 French language 68k 32.0 55.7% Language
48 Modern Hebrew 66k 44.7 51.0% Language
49 Khmer language 62k 37.0 41.3% Language
50 Malaysian language 62k 37.9 54.4% Language

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Frequently asked questions

How is this list of the most popular languages compiled?

Rascasse aggregates anonymized search-behavior signals across South Africa and ranks each language by its estimated audience size. Only entries with at least 5 measured entities are listed.

How often is the list updated?

The ranking is refreshed weekly from the latest search-behavior data and re-published as a static page.

What is the largest language in South Africa?

Zulu language currently leads with an estimated audience of 3.1M people in South Africa.

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