Reference
Society
Faith, government and language labels in the 54 countries, with a view of two countries side by side.
Every label here comes from the World Factbook's entry for each country[1]. The language section keeps three things apart: languages marked official at national level, African language names mentioned in the entry, and Glottolog families for the fourteen quiz languages. None of these is a census of speakers. Nothing on this page comes from local voices, and the Factbook's estimates come from different years.
Religion
31 countries have a Christian plurality, 20 a Muslim one, and 1 neither.
Across the 52 countries with shares, weighting each by its 2025 population, about 53% of people are counted as Christian and 41% as Muslim. Those countries hold 96% of Africa's people.
- Christian
- Muslim
- Traditional or folk religions
- No religion or unaffiliated
- Hindu, Buddhist and other Asian religions
- Other, unspecified or not counted
Sorted by Christian share. Hover or focus a bar for every group. Countries are grouped here from the Factbook's own labels: "Roman Catholic", "Protestant" and the like count as Christian; "animist" and "folk religion" as traditional. Sub-groups inside brackets are ignored, and a share given as "less than 1%" counts as zero, so the remainder falls under "other". Eritrea and Sudan have no percentages in the Factbook, so they are left out. Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain shares are grouped together as Asian religions; Mauritius is the only country where they are the largest group.
By subregion
- Christian
- Muslim
- Traditional or folk religions
- No religion or unaffiliated
- Hindu, Buddhist and other Asian religions
- Other, unspecified or not counted
Population-weighted averages of the country shares, which mix estimate years from 2007 to 2022.
Government
36 of 54 countries are presidential republics.
The Factbook gives one phrase per country; here they are sorted into six groups. "Federal" is dropped from the label. The entries can lag events: where the Factbook says a country is in transition or was formerly one type, it is placed in the last group. Hover a country for the Factbook's exact words.
Presidential republic 36
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Congo
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Kenya
- Liberia
- Malawi
- Mauritania
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Nigeria
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Semi-presidential republic 5
- DR Congo
- Guinea-Bissau
- Madagascar
- Mali
- São Tomé and Príncipe
Parliamentary republic 7
- Botswana
- Cabo Verde
- Ethiopia
- Mauritius
- Somalia
- South Africa
- Tunisia
Constitutional monarchy 2
- Lesotho
- Morocco
Absolute monarchy 1
- Eswatini
Other or in transition 3
- Eritrea
- Libya
- Niger
By subregion
| Subregion | Presidential | Semi-presidential | Parliamentary | Constitutional monarchy | Absolute monarchy | Other or in transition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Africa | 3 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 1 |
| Western Africa | 12 | 2 | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| Middle Africa | 7 | 2 | – | – | – | – |
| Eastern Africa | 13 | 1 | 3 | – | – | 1 |
| Southern Africa | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | 1 | – |
Languages marked official
English is marked official in 22 countries, French in 20.
These are only the languages the Factbook marks "official" at national level, counted by country. This is a label in the source, not a ranking by number of speakers. Regional or working languages, such as most of Ethiopia's, are not counted. 19 more languages are official in one country each. Variant names are merged (Kiswahili and Swahili). The Factbook does not mark every case: Ghana and Mauritius have none marked, so they show as "none marked", which does not mean they have no official language.
How many official languages
The four most shared, by subregion
| Subregion | French | English | Arabic | Portuguese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Africa 6 | – | 1 | 6 | – |
| Western Africa 16 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Middle Africa 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Eastern Africa 18 | 6 | 11 | 4 | 1 |
| Southern Africa 5 | – | 5 | – | – |
Number of countries in each subregion that mark the language official; the grey number is the subregion's total.
African language names mentioned in the Factbook
The Factbook entries name 105 African languages or language groups. Fula is named for 10 countries, Swahili for 6; 68 are named for one country only.
Twelve languages named for the most countries; ties in alphabetical order
This counts mentions in the Factbook, not speakers and not all languages spoken in a country. The Factbook writes languages differently from one country to the next: some entries list a dozen, others say "numerous indigenous languages" and name none, so a language missing here may well be spoken there. Names are matched from a list written for this page and some variants are merged: Fula includes Fulani, Pulaar and Fulfulde; Mandinka includes Maninka and Malinke; Swahili includes Kiswahili. Arabic, Afrikaans, creoles and European languages are left out, and 48 entries that did not match a language on the list are not counted[1].
Every language matched, with its countries
For where fourteen of them come from and which can be learned on Duolingo, see Languages.
- Fula Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal
- Swahili Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya (official), Rwanda (official), Tanzania (official), Uganda (official)
- Tamazight (Berber) Algeria (official), Libya, Mali, Morocco (official), Niger, Tunisia
- Mandinka Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal
- Chewa (Nyanja) Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe (official)
- Afar Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia (official)
- Kikongo Angola, Congo, DR Congo
- Ndebele Botswana, South Africa (official), Zimbabwe (official)
- Somali Djibouti, Ethiopia (official), Somalia (official)
- Soninke Mali, Mauritania, Senegal
- Sotho Lesotho (official), South Africa (official), Zimbabwe
- Tonga Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe
- Tswana Botswana, South Africa (official), Zimbabwe
- Wolof Gambia, Mauritania, Senegal
- Xhosa Lesotho, South Africa (official), Zimbabwe
- Bobo Burkina Faso, Mali
- Dagara Burkina Faso, Ghana
- Dagomba Ghana, Togo
- Dyula Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire
- Ewe Ghana, Togo
- Fang Equatorial Guinea (official), Gabon
- Hausa Niger, Nigeria
- Lingala Congo, DR Congo
- Lomwe Malawi, Mozambique
- Luvale Angola, Zambia
- Ndau Mozambique, Zimbabwe
- Sena Malawi, Mozambique
- Senufo Burkina Faso, Mali
- Shona Botswana, Zimbabwe (official)
- Swati Eswatini (official), South Africa (official)
- Tigrinya Eritrea (official), Ethiopia (official)
- Tsonga Mozambique, South Africa (official)
- Tumbuka Malawi, Zambia
- Venda South Africa (official), Zimbabwe
- Yoruba Benin, Nigeria
- Zarma-Songhay Mali, Niger
- Zulu Lesotho, South Africa (official)
- Akan (Twi, Fante, Asante) Ghana
- Amharic Ethiopia (official)
- Bambara Mali (official)
- Bari South Sudan
- Bariba Benin
- Beja Sudan
- Bemba Zambia
- Bisa Zambia
- Bissa Burkina Faso
- Chokwe Angola
- Comorian Comoros (official)
- Dinka South Sudan
- Dogon Mali
- Fon Benin
- Fur Sudan
- Ga-Dangme Ghana
- Gamo Ethiopia
- Gedeo Ethiopia
- Gurage Ethiopia
- Gurunsi Burkina Faso
- Hadiyya Ethiopia
- Herero Namibia
- Igbo Nigeria
- Jola Senegal
- Kabye Togo
- Kafa Ethiopia
- Kanuri Niger
- Kaonde Zambia
- Kimbundu Angola
- Kinyarwanda Rwanda (official)
- Kirundi Burundi (official)
- Konkomba Ghana
- Kunama Eritrea
- Lala Zambia
- Lamba Zambia
- Lenje Zambia
- Lobi Burkina Faso
- Lozi Zambia
- Luganda Uganda
- Lunda Zambia
- Makhuwa Mozambique
- Malagasy Madagascar (official)
- Mambwe Zambia
- Mende Sierra Leone
- Mossi Burkina Faso
- Myene Gabon
- Nama-Damara Namibia
- Namwanga Zambia
- Nsenga Zambia
- Nubian Sudan
- Nuer South Sudan
- Nzebi Gabon
- Oromo Ethiopia (official)
- Oshiwambo Namibia
- Pedi (Northern Sotho) South Africa (official)
- Sango Central African Republic
- Sara Chad
- Serer Senegal
- Shilluk South Sudan
- Sidamo Ethiopia
- Susu Guinea
- Temne Sierra Leone
- Tigre Eritrea
- Tshiluba DR Congo
- Umbundu Angola
- Wolaytta Ethiopia
- Yao Malawi
- Zande South Sudan
Two countries side by side
- Religion and language shares come from a single source, in estimate years that range widely. Where a national census exists it should replace the Factbook figure, and has not yet been checked.
- The groupings are ours and flatten real differences: "Christian" joins Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and independent churches; "Muslim" does not separate Sunni, Shia or Sufi orders.
- Spoken languages are only partly shown: the Factbook names some of them, and only where its entry for a country lists them. A country whose entry says "numerous indigenous languages" shows none. Numbers of speakers are not given at all.
- Government types are labels, not an assessment of how a country is governed in practice, and may lag recent changes.
Sources
- Institutional · to verify[1] The World Factbook: Government type, Languages, Religions (africa/*.json). CIA, via the factbook/factbook.json copy on GitHub. github.com retrieved 7 Oct 2026
Public-domain text copied unchanged. The copy does not say which edition it holds, and each figure carries its own estimate year in the text. Shares are estimates from censuses or surveys of different years; official languages are as the Factbook records them.