Languages spoken in South Africa's metro municipalities

Created	April 20, 2025
Credit	Census 2022. Cultural Dynamics in South Africa, StatsSA 2025
Category	Demographics
Description	The percentage of the population that speaks each of South Africa's 12 official languages most often in the household by metro politan municipality. Data is from Statistics South Africa's 1996, 2001, 2011 and 2022 national censuses. Original report is here: https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/03-01-84/03-01-84.pdf
Data rows	14
Headers	Language Mangaung % EThekwini % Non-Metros % Buffalo City % City of Tshwane % City of Cape Town % City of Ekurhuleni % Nelson Mandela Bay % City of Johannesburg %

Data

Language	Mangaung %	EThekwini %	Non-Metros %	Buffalo City %	City of Tshwane %	City of Cape Town %	City of Ekurhuleni %	Nelson Mandela Bay %	City of Johannesburg %
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
IsiXhosa	7.4	3.1	16.3	82.4	2.2	37.4	8.5	59.5	7.0
English	1.7	28.6	8.7	10.1	6.9	30.6	8.9	13.3	13.7
Afrikaans	10.8	0.8	10.6	5.3	12.1	26.1	7.3	24.7	3.8
Other	0.7	1.1	2.1	1.3	4.5	3.8	3.3	1.6	4.0
Sesotho	64.0	0.6	7.8	0.3	5.0	0.8	10.2	0.2	11.9
IsiZulu	0.6	65.6	24.4	0.3	9.0	0.5	35.7	0.3	28.9
Xitsonga	0.1	0.0	4.7	0.1	9.2	0.2	6.7	0.1	7.4
IsiNdebele	0.1	0.1	1.7	0.1	5.0	0.2	1.7	0.1	3.6
Setswana	14.3	0.0	8.3	0.0	17.8	0.2	2.6	0.0	7.7