Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 ibo · ig
Igbo Language
Igbo is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 28 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Igbo is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Igbo language
Igbo is spoken by about 28 million people, which makes it the 55th most spoken language in the world — just behind Ukrainian (29 million) and ahead of Saraiki (28 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Central-Northern Igbo group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Igbo spoken?
Igbo is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Nigeria (31 million).
Igbo is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Igbo is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Swahili, Swahili, Yoruba, Lingala, Zulu, Chichewa and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ig, ISO 639-3 ibo.
Frequently asked questions about Igbo
How many people speak Igbo?
Where is Igbo spoken?
What language family does Igbo belong to?
Is Igbo an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.