In brief
The largest documented number lives in Kenya: 110,614 people in the 2009 census.
Main language: Swahili. 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.
Kenya
110,614
Languages and their lineage
Swahili
- Atlantic-Congoatla1278
- Volta-Congovolt1241
- Benue-Congobenu1247
- Bantoidbant1294
- Southern Bantoidsout3152
- Narrow Bantunarr1281
- East Bantueast2731
- Northeast Savanna Bantunort3203
- Northeast Coastal Bantunort3209
- Coastal NEC Bantucoas1317
- Sabaki-Swahilisaba1282
- Swahili (G.40)swah1254
- Mombasa-Lamu-Inland Swahilimomb1256
- Swahiliswah1253
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. Kenya, 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)