Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 wol · wo
Wolof Language Wolof làkk
Wolof is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 11 million people in 2 countries. It is an official language of Senegal. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Wolof is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Wolof
Language family
- Atlantic-Congo
- North-Central Atlantic
- Wolof-BKK
- Wolofic
- Wolof
Writing system
Latin script
About the Wolof language
Wolof (Wolof làkk) is spoken by about 11 million people, which makes it the 110th most spoken language in the world — just behind Min Bei Chinese (11 million) and ahead of Rundi (11 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Wolofic group within the Wolof-BKK branch.
Where is Wolof spoken?
Wolof is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Senegal (13 million) and Mauritania (9,954). More than half of the population speaks it in Senegal — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Wolof: Senegal 70% (13 million) and Mauritania 0.2% (9,954).
Wolof is an official language in 1 country: Senegal.
Writing system and status
Wolof is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 wo, ISO 639-3 wol.
Frequently asked questions about Wolof
How many people speak Wolof?
Where is Wolof spoken?
In which countries is Wolof an official language?
What language family does Wolof belong to?
What is Wolof called in Wolof?
Is Wolof 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.