In brief
The largest documented number lives in Uganda: 4,200,782 people in the 2024 census.
Main language: Nyankole. Glottolog classifies it in the Atlantic-Congo family.
Where they live: census figures
Each figure comes from the country's official census. Censuses define belonging differently (self-identification, citizenship, mother tongue, ancestry); the type is given on each row.
Uganda
4,200,782
Languages and their lineage
Nyankole
- Atlantic-Congoatla1278
- Volta-Congovolt1241
- Benue-Congobenu1247
- Bantoidbant1294
- Southern Bantoidsout3152
- Narrow Bantunarr1281
- East Bantueast2731
- Northeast Savanna Bantunort3203
- Great Lakes Bantugrea1289
- West Nyanzawest2841
- Rutararuta1242
- North Rutaranort3228
- Nkore-Kiga-Nyoro-Tooronkor1240
- Nkore-Kigankor1241
- Nyankolenyan1307
People-to-language links: Wikidata (properties P103 and P2936), checked against ISO 639-3 codes. Language classification: Glottolog 5.3.
Peoples of the same language family
Sources
- United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Uganda, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
- Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)