Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 urh
Urhobo Language
Urhobo is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 1.1 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Urhobo is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Urhobo language
Urhobo is spoken by about 1.1 million people, which makes it the 454th most spoken language in the world — just behind Tesaka Malagasy (1.1 million) and ahead of Zande (1.1 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Southwestern Edoid group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Urhobo spoken?
Urhobo is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Nigeria (550,000).
Urhobo is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Urhobo 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 Bini, Swahili, Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo, Lingala and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 urh.
Frequently asked questions about Urhobo
How many people speak Urhobo?
Where is Urhobo spoken?
What language family does Urhobo belong to?
Is Urhobo 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.