Languages of Malawi at a glance
- 32living languages
- 2language families
- 21.8 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
- 5with a CLDR share
Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Malawi. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.
Languages spoken in Malawi
Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.
Read more: where is English spoken?
Language families in Malawi
- Atlantic-Congo (31 languages)
- Indo-European (1 language)
About these numbers
The list of languages in Malawi comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.
Questions about languages in Malawi
How many languages are spoken in Malawi?
32 living languages are mapped in Malawi, from 2 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.
What is the most spoken language in Malawi?
By Unicode CLDR's estimate, English is spoken by 63% of the population, about 13,710,879 people, followed by Nyanja (63%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.
Which language families are found in Malawi?
Atlantic-Congo (31 languages) and Indo-European (1 language).